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Gerrit Smith Broadside and Pamphlet Collection

Gerrit Smith to Mr. Littlejohn : Midland Rail Road.

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874.

Digital Edition.

This digitization project was supported by Regional Bibliographic Databases and Interlibrary Resources Sharing Program funds, awarded by the New York State Library.

Call number: Smith 537

GERRIT SMITH TO MR. LITTLEJOHN.

MIDLAND RAIL ROAD.

PETERBORO October 12th 1866.

Hon. D. C. LITTLEJOHN, President Midland R. R. Company,

MY DEAR SIR,

Possibly, the Ontario and Huron Ship Canal will soon be built. Possibly [Probably] the Welland Canal will soon be enlarged. But more probable is it that the Niagara Ship Canal will be built, ere long. For the narrow-mindedness, which forbids the opening of a new commercial channel, lest its greater usefulness may diminish the use and profits of an existing one, has had its day amongst a people, who have be come too enlightened to bear any longer with such selfishness and nonsense. In vain, will Buffalo hereafter try to alarm us with the prospect that the Niagara Ship Canal would reduce the business of the Erie Canal and of the City of New York. How, indeed, can she have the face to try it, now that her Press is rejoicing in the new Rail Roads, which place her in such profitable connexion with Philadelphia and Baltimore ! In spite of that unblushing affectation of anxiety for the prosperity of the Erie Canal and the City of New York with which she has hitherto covered over the intense selfishness of her opposition to the construction of the Niagara Ship Canal, she is now boasting that: "Already large quantities of grain have been shipped to Baltimore direct from this place (Buffalo), and ultimately the volume of trade in that direction will be very large." No pity has she for the losses that come to the Erie Canal and New York from this diversion. Her pity is not for those losses which are her gains.

The State of New York will no longer continue to inflict the deep wrong and incur the deep disgrace of denying to the Vest the right of way over half a dozen miles of her territory. And, just here, let me say that the Union can no more be preserved by indulging the selfish spirit, which has ruled our State Government in this respect, than by indulging the spirit of "Secession." Our States must cordially recognize the natural and fraternal right of each to cross the others on the cheapest routes, or they must, ere long, be driven asunder by the repellent spirit of selfishness.

When any one of these important works to which I have referred shall have been accomplished, a very considerable share of the surplus grain and flour of the North Western States, and perhaps of Canada West also, will come to Oswego. And, then, without any delay, if indeed it shall not have been built before, a direct Rail Road will be built from Oswego to New York-New York being not only the great mart of the nation, but nearer than any other Atlantic port to the Great Lakes, and nearer to Oswego than to any other port of those Lakes.

Will your Company build this Road ? I fear it will not. It will, perhaps, build a Road. But I fear it will not build this Road. The pressure upon you for a Road, which will accommodate and benefit intermediate localities, and your fear that, unless this pressure is yielded to, money enough cannot be obtained to build any Road, will, but too probably, prevent the building of such a Road, as the trade of the Great West with the Great City will call for. Such a Road will, nevertheless, be built. Your Road, if you shall have built it with a primary reference to way-travel and way-interests, will not prevent the building of the other. Your Road, if so unwisely built, will leave, instead of removing, the necessity for building the other.

The Road from Oswego to New York, which must and will be built, will cost much more than you propose to expend. It must be as direct as is practicable, and of easy grades. For if it shall not be at least fifty miles shorter than the Road through Utica and Albany, and if it shall have numerous heavy grades, then the remarkably level Road, in which, all the way from Oswego to New York, there is but one heavy grade, will be its fatal competitor. Hence, in order to bring this indispensable Road to this necessary degree of directness and to these necessary moderate grades, several millions may need to be expended in filling up valleys, and cutting down, and perhaps also tunneling, hills. Massachusetts means to share, more largely than now, in the trade of the West. Hence, she has already expended some millions, and must expend twice as many more, in tunneling Hoosic Mountain. She does this, in order to bring Boston, upon greatly improved grades, to the Hudson, and about as near to Troy as New York is. And, ere she is through with this, she will be at work to extend her independent Road to Oswego.

But could the many millions be obtained to make the Road from Oswego to New York as short and as easy as it should be ? Undoubtedly. Capitalists would be eager to take stock in a Road, built just where and as it should be, across the narrowest space between the Lakes and the Atlantic - ay, between the foot of the Lakes and the Great American City. New York, if from nothing else than her sharp competition with Boston for the Lake trade, will see to it that this Road is built, and in all respects wisely built.

It is unnecessary to add that stock in your Road would be of but little value, should the Road be so injudiciously built, as to necessitate the building of another. Nor, even if another should not be built, would it be of much value, provided it should be, as many seem willing to have it, but thirty miles shorter than the present Road from Oswego to New York, and with not a few grades in it of seventy or eighty feet. Your Road in that case would need no other rivalry than that of present Roads to make it a very poor investment.

On which of the proposed routes, or whether on any of them, the Road should be built, is for your Board to decide. Until I learned what I did on the day of the late Meeting of your Directors, I supposed that the Road would run from Oswego to Syracuse and thence across the West part of the County of Madison. But when I ascertained how heavy are the grades on the shortest routes in our County and how long are the longest routes in it, and, that too, with grades not low enough to atone for the unexpected length of the routes, I thought it not probable that the Road would be built upon any of them. A DeRuyter and Georgetown route was spoken of as six or eight miles shorter than any other. Perhaps, it should be adopted. It certainly should be, if it is so much shorter, and if the expenditure of a million of dollars upon its summit and grades would suffice to bring them as low as the summit and grades on any and every rival route. It should, in that case, be preferred to the Cazenovia route, notwithstanding the great attractions of the latter. Let me add that when, that day, I saw the danger that the Road would be built upon a line but some thirty miles shorter than the present Road and with grades as hard as the grades in the present Road are easy, I felt that we should all give up our chosen routes, and go, as one man, for that line, which, in all its parts from Oswego to New York, combines the highest attainable advantages in respect to length and surface.

[2]

Have you ever thought of running your Road from Oswego up the River to a point near Phoenix, and then diverging upon a straight line to a point between Canastota and Oneida ? From the South East end of that line, which would run all the way over a fiat country, you would ascend in the Cowaselon or Oneida Valley to the summit between those Valleys and the Chenango. Thence you would descend through the villages of Hamlton and Earlville. This route, if taking the Oneida Valley, would probably be two or three miles longer than the Cazenovia and Eaton route; but if taking the Cowaselon, not any. It would require a considerable, but I think not too great an expenditure to get from the Cowaselon into the Oneida Valley. It is worthy of mention that whether you take the Oneida or Cowaselon Creek, you will find all the building stone, common-lime and water lime which you will need in the construction of the Road. If you needed plaster, I would add that plaster also is in the Cowaselon Valley.

The main argument for this Sullivan and Lenox, or Eastern, route is that its summit is hundreds of feet lower than the summits on the other routes in Madison County; and that, if adopted, the Road would, no where in the County, have a heavier grade than fifty feet, and would, for three-fourths of its course in it, be remarkably level. One argument against this route is that it deprives the Road of the benefit of going through Syracuse. No small drawback however to this benefit would be the cost of the right of way through that City. But desirable as it is to go through Syracuse, could we, for this sake, afford to climb over Madison County hills, which are more than twelve, and some even more than thirteen, hundred feet above Syracuse ? - and, this too, when the Road could be so laid that no point in it, in the whole length of Madison County, would be much more than seven hundred feet above Syracuse? A question, involving so glaringly absurd a supposition, answers itself.

It will be said, that the Towns and individuals along this Sullivan and Lenox route would take less stock in the Road than would the Towns and individuals along the Western routes. This is by no means certain. But what if they would? Your only permissible way to get your stock taken is by building your Road on the best route for getting the transportation of a large share of the products of the West. If Towns and individuals along the Road choose to help build it because of its probable incidental benefits to themselves, very well. But let them understand that, gratified as your Directors would be in having such benefits very large, the benefits, nevertheless, constitute no part of your direct object in building the Road.

And let me add that it is, in this wise, you will most easily get your stock taken. By a course so enlightened and so candid you will inspire such a confidence in yourselves, as will bring to you all the help you need.

You told me, the other day, that I must increase my subscription to twenty-five thousand dollars. I did not demur. I believe all Oswego will testify, that I have evinced a submissive spirit under the numerous and sometimes heavy demands she has made upon me. If you build your Road where and as you should do, you will make it the richest link in all the lines of transportation, and, may be, of travel also, from the seaboard to Superior: and then I shall enjoy remunerative, ay and more than remunerative, dividends. But if your Road shall climb hills, or zig-zag here and there, to please an individual; or to accommodate a Town or a County, then your Road may, indeed, be still worth much to the people who live along it - but the stock in it will be worthless.

Your friend

GERRIT SMITH.