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Executive Department {of the State of Virginia} |
| December 2, 1861 |
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Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Delegates
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Since the adjournment of the general assembly on the 4th
day of April last, Virginia has withdrawn from the Federal Union, and
has resumed her sovereignty as an independent state.
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*****
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The rail road companies of the state have been active,
energetic and faithful in the performance of duty in this crisis.
Their officers, employees and agents have spared no proper effort to
transport, with the least possible delay, troops, supplies and
ammunition to desired points; and they deserve and will receive the
thanks of the people not only of Virginia, but of the Confederacy.
They have justly won the confidence of the country, and in times like
these it becomes the legislature to deal generously and liberally with
them, giving to them such aid as will enable them to promote the
public interest, without pecuniary sacrifice.
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Our rail roads have not been constructed with special
reference to military purposes and objects, but the war has
demonstrated that if they had been constructed with this view, they
could not have been better adapted to our wants and necessities. The
Virginia & Tennessee, the {Virginia} Central,
the Orange & Alexandria, the Manassas Gap, the Richmond,
Fredericksburg & Potomac, the Richmond & Petersburg, the South
Side, the Richmond & Danville, the Harpers Ferry and Winchester {the
Winchester & Potomac}, the {Richmond
&} York River, and last, but by no
means least, the Norfolk and Petersburg roads, have all rendered
essential and valuable services. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive
how we could have dispensed with them, or either of them. Their
connections are as important as the roads themselves; and it really
seems as if Providence had guided our engineers in the selection of
the routes, with a view to providing the best means for the defence of
the state in the existing contingency. Take a map, examine it
carefully, and it would seem as if the same wise Providence had
superintended, directed and controlled our entire system of internal
improvements of every kind in Virginia and throughout the Southern
Confederacy.
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***** |
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Respectfully, |
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John Letcher {Governor} |
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