Page:Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Georgia 1849.djvu/23

20 it is conceded that the adoption of the seheme suggested, would involve a considerable expenditure, it is believed, it it be the policy of the State to work convict labor on its own account, a more judicious and profitable application of it could not be made. Having briefly alluded to some of the considerations deserving your notice in reference to the government of the road, there remain to be presented others of equal, if not greater magnitude. It was believed to be a duty to indicate on the first opportunity presented, which occurred just two years ago, not merely my desire to see the Rail Road finished to Chattanooga, but that it be done without increasing the public burdens, or creating the necessity for increased taxation. The act of 1847, appropriating three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars of the bonds of the State, for the completion of the extension from Dalton to the terminus in Tennessee, contains an express provision that the nett income, after extinguishing all existing liens on the Road, which amounted to the sum of one hundred and thirty thousand dollars, should be applied to the payment of said debt. Believing then, as now, if by loaning the credit of the State, in the form of its securities, payable at a future day, the completion of the Road could be accomplished, that the increased receipts thereby secured, would not only relieve the Legislature from the necessity of providing for their payment by taxation, but that an income from this source might be relied upon to aid in the liquidation of the pre-existing debt, I felt no hesitation in giving the bill my sanction. What was belief at that time has assumed the more solid form of fact at this. Then, as now, the line of railway was but one hundred miles; the receipts then as compared with the last two years, ending 30th ultimo, shew an increase of the present over last year of fourteen per cent., and forty-seven per cent, increase over the year 1847. This shews the wonderful and progressive developments of the resources of our State, in two years by means of the stimulus of this Road, acting mainly upon our own people. The vallies between the almost innumerable ledges of mountains to be met with in this section of the State, containing large tracts of land equal in fertility to any in the valley of the Mississippi, have been hitherto locked out from trade by natural barriers; the inhabitants, from almost insurmountable difficulties in obtaining a market, were deterred from all efforts to produce much beyond the requirements of domestic consumption; but now, they are being aroused to action and to enterprise by the stimulating and magic influence of accessibility to the markets of the world. None can anticipate the capacity of this interesting region for agricultural products, to say nothing of its mines and minerals. If this be true—and the receipts of our Rail Road prove it to be so,—what must be the