Department of International Improvement [pp. 460-468]

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
Whereas, A large amount of rolling stock and material of these roads was
taken, used and destroyed by the general government during the war, and
no credit for these or the use of the roads during the time has been allowed,
and
Wher,eas, Large grants of public lands have been made to many of the
States in the Union in aid of internal improvement, therefore
Resolred, By the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, that a me morial be presented to the Congress of the United States, praying them on
behalf of the State of Tennessee, to donate and appropriate the amount of
the said indebtedness, principal and interest to the State of Tennessee in aid
of internal improvements in said State, and further,
Resolved, That our Senators in (Congress be instructed, and our Represen tatives be requested to do all in their power to accomplish the objects of
this resolution.
Commenting upon these resolutions the Nashville Union and Despatch
remarks:
There is no road in Tennessee that is not an important link in a "trunk"
connection. Let us see: 1st. The Chattanooga road, the first built, brought
Nashville in direct connection with the Eastern Gulf States, through the
system of Georgia and Eastern Alabama, as well as with the Atlantic coast
of Georgia, and the whole of South and North Carolina. 2nd. The Memphis
and Charleston, a grand East and West "Trunk line," extending from the
Mississippi, through its latitudinal connections with Norfolk, VVashington,
Baltimore, and thence North and East, with prospective extensions West to
the heart of Arkansas, and to the Rocky Mountains beyond. 3rd. The East
Tennessee and Georgia and the East Tennessee and Virginia, cutting
through the whole extent of East Tennessee, and forming an important
part of the great line last above, and without which the Virginia and Ten nessee would be merely a local artery. The Louisville and Nashville, on
the great air-line from the Northeast to the Southwest, and following the
perpendicular from Buffalo to New Orleans. Its radiation to Memphis,
through the Ohio and the Memphis, Louisville and Clarksville, these con stituting a sub-system reaching out into ths direct South and direct WTest,
and clasping the trade pulse of the immediate valley of the Mlississippi.
4th. The Nashville and Decatur, cutting across the Memphis and Charleston
and reaching forward to Montgomery, and thence to Pensacola, the easter most and best harbor of the Mexican Gulf, and opening to the West Indies,
and the great marts of South America. 5th. The Nashville and Northwes tern, stretching across the Tennessee to the Mississippi, and reaching out
beyond to the Missouri system, and becoming the great Southeastern tributary
to the great union line to the Pacific. 6th. The Edgefield and Kentucky,
or the Nashville and Henderson, opening a direct line with Indiana, through
Illinois to Chicago, and thence to the extreme Northwest and the Lake Superior region. 7th. Then there are sub-connections of the Nashville and
Northwestern, the Memphis and Charleston, and the Memphis and Ohio
with the Mobile and Ohio, and the Mississippi Central and the Mississippi
and Tennessee, penetrating entirely through the valley and reaching the
gulf at Mobile, and through the mouths of the Mississippi.
From this view of the Tennessee system of railroads, it is clear that the
resolutions of Mr. Prosser do not propose to confer merely local benefits.
The roads he proposes to relieve, really constitute the central system of the
Union; and all the Middle, Central, Western and Southern States are
directly interested in upholding the Tennessee roads that are immediately
to reap the advantages proposed.
Besides, the whole Union has already received value for that which is now
claimed as a debt due from these roads. There was not a road in Tennessee which was not used by the Union forces in suppressing the Rebellion. And as Mr. Prosser truthfully says, not one of them has been compensated for that use. Take the Nashville and Chattanooga, for example
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