DOC. No. XXV.
MEMORIAL
or THE
AMES RIVER AID KAIAWHA COIPAE
1853-4.
Doc. No. 25.
3
MEMORIAL.
To the General Assembly of Virginia.
The memorial of the James river and Kanawha company
respectfully represents :
That the stockholders of the company, at their late annual meeting, adopted
the following resolution :
"Resolved, that the president and directors are instructed to present a me¬
morial to the next general assembly, asking for such aid as may seem to it proper
to enable this company to extend its canal to the town of Covington; and that
the president and directors are hereby authorized to execute such securities for
any loan or loans that may he made for that purpose, as the state may require."
In pursuance of that resolution, the president and directors now present this
memorial, and earnestly ask the aid contemplated.
It is proper to inform the general assembly that the company, at a called
meeting held iu April, accepted the terms and benefit of the two acts of assembly
passed at the last session—one making a loan of seventy thousand dollars, to be
applied to the completion of the Tidewater connection, and the other a loan of
six hundred and forty thousand dollars, of which sixty thousand dollars was to
be applied to the Tidewater connection, and the balance to the extension of the
water line west of Buchanan. By agreeing to the conditions of the last men¬
tioned act, the company has become subject to the provisions of the Code of
Virginia so far as they relate to internal improvement aud joint stock companies,
and also to the provisions of the act of the 9th of April 1853, amending the
Code, by which the vote of the state in the company has been increased.
Your memorialists take pleasure in stating that the appropriations made for
the completion of the Tidewater connection are considered sufficient, and the
work is satisfactorily approaching its completion. In the course of the present
fiscal year it will he finished ; the company's revenue will be augmented ; the
public will enjoy the advantage and convenience resulting from an enlargement
of the harbor and wharfage of Richmond; the commerce of this city will be
brought to the doors of the warehouses, and the navigation of the canal con¬
veniently connected with the lower James river.
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Doc. No. 25.
The appropriation of five hundred and eighty thousand dollars made by the act
of March last, has enabled the board of directors to locate and put under contract
so much of the improvement above Buchanan as extends from that town to the
mouth of Craig's creek, a distance of fifteen miles, embracing two tunnels and
three aqueducts ; by resorting to which costly works, they have not only saved
more than five miles of distance, but have diminished the expense of construc¬
tion. The contracts were made on favorable terms, and there is no reason to
doubt that the contractors will complete their work within the time stipulated.
The means of the company are considered sufficient only to complete the water
line to the mouth of Craig's creek. The policy of extending the canal to some
point at or near Covington, has been on several occasions declared by the general
assembly; and it would seem to be in the highest degree injurious to the James
river and Kanawha company, and to the state, its largest stockholder and cre¬
ditor, not to connect the canal with the Covington and Ohio railroad. The Board
of public works have made Covington the eastern terminus of that road ; and the
Central railroad company have made Covington the western terminus of their
road. Covington, then, so far as at present appears, is to he the point of junction
of those two important improvements ; and supposing it so to continue, that town
will become one of commercial importance; it will contain the depots and work¬
shops of both roads ; and will be the residence of forwarding merchants, agents
and officers. Covington, too, being the only town in that section conveniently
accessible to the surrounding country, must become the depot of its trade. The
people of the west ought to have the privilege of sending their produce by the
state railroad to Covington, and thence by the canal, if they prefer it. They
should not be compelled to resort to a railroad from Covington to a lower point
of connection with the canal—thus causing their produce to pass through the
hands of three companies and three sets of agents, and thereby adding to the cost
of transhipment the danger of loss and detention. So, in like manner, the peo¬
ple of the east ought to have the privilege of sending their commodités by the
canal to Covington, and thence by the state road, instead of being compelled to
a change of agents, and very probably an intermediate transhipment.
The advantage to the public of having two lines of transportation competing
for the freight which will be brought by the state road to Covington, is an ob¬
vious and a weighty consideration in favor of granting the prayer of your
petitioners.
Should the state grant a loan to the James river and Kanawha company to
extend its improvement to Covington, that loan, so far from being onerous to
the state, will render its other investments in the corapany'more secure and
profitable.
No physical obstacle impedes the progress of the canal to Covington ; the
supply of water is abundant ; and the distance from Craig's creek to Covington
only twenty-nine miles. If the means are not afforded this winter for putting
the line under contract as far as Covington, two years must elapse before the
work beyond Craig's creek can be commenced, and four years at least" before it
can he completed. If, on the contrary, the means are afforded, the company will
at an early day put under contract all the heavy works of art, reserving the
Doc. No. 25.
5
lighter or eaeier portions until such time as they should be contracted for, with a
view to the simultaneous completion of the whole. The sooner the canal is
completed to Covington, the sooner will its beneficial elfects upon the trade, busi¬
ness, agriculture and prosperity of the state and upon the revenues of the com¬
pany be felt and enjoyed.
Your memorialists therefore pray that the general assembly will authorize a
loan to be made to enable the James river and Kanawha company to extend its
canal to the town of Covington.
The James River and Kanawha Company.
By THOM.A.S H. ELLIS,
Thür President.
Richmond, Dec. 5, 1853-