USA > Kentucky > History of Kentucky, Volume II > Part 56
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71 Cincinnati Commercial, Feb. 16, 1870.
72 Nov. 30, 1869. The goods from Boston came by boat either to Charleston or Savannah and thence to Chattanooga by rail, or to Norfolk by boat and thence over the Virginia and East Tennessee Railroad, or by rail all the way to the above-named road.
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natural that Southern merchants should stop buying from Cincinnati, as one complained, "because if our goods are delayed in this way, purchased north of the Ohio River, we will be forced to buy south of it." 73
It was thus painfully evident to Cincinnati that she was cut off from the Southern trade, and that it was by the studied design of Louisville that it was so. Her prosperity had not been marked after the close of the war, and she believed that it was largely due to the fact that she had never been able to reach adequately the Southern markets.74 With Louisville guarding the only gateway to the South, she could never hope to be very successful in extending her trade there. She had, indeed, attempted through the "Green Line" arrangement to prevent interminable delays in her south- bound freight, but this could never bring her much success as long as her goods had to go over the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.75 At last it began to dawn upon Cincinnati, with a force more and more compelling, that she must seek an entirely new route to the South over which there should be no influence working to her detriment.
IV
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE CINCINNATI SOUTHERN RAILWAY
Cincinnati wanted a direct route to the South for other reasons than to circumvent the effects of the hostility of Louisville and of the railway system she controlled. Even with Louisville friendly, Cincinnati knew that she could never hope to develop fully her Southern trade. Only by a direct connection with the South could she cultivate those good rela- tions which were so necessary in extending her commerce. This advan- tage of a direct railway was advanced very often as an important reason for its construction. A Cincinnati newspaper correspondent writes on this point: "The wish is general with both the North and the South, and the time has come, for a more intimate mingling of our people. It will most assuredly rub off the rough edges and sharp corners in both sections, to mix and mingle-to traffic, to take each other by the hand and look into each other's faces, will certainly in time, if not immediately, make us homogeneous."1 At the prospect of greatly increasing her trade, Cincinnati was perfectly willing to bury the unpleasantness of the past.
Of the four great cities in the interior, Cincinnati alone had no ade- quate unimpeded connections with the Southern markets.2 In order to
73 Cincinnati Commercial, Oct. 4. 1869. "This policy will force the erring Southern merchant to discern that he may buy goods in Louisville if he will, in Cincinnati if he can * * *" Editorial in Ibid., Nov. 25, 1869.
74 The Cincinnati Common Council, in a petition to Congress, summed up their grievance against Louisville as follows: "Moreover, it must be well known to Congress and the nation that the city in whose interest the said railroad bridge has been constructed, and by which she had been virtually placed at the head of navigation on the Ohio, has, in the pursuance of a most illiberal policy, refused such railroad connections through her limits as would enable Cincinnati to ship mer- chandise and manufactures to the South and Southwest, without breaking bulk, with extraordinary expense and protracted delays, thus seeking in a compulsory manner to force the merchants and traders from those sections to abandon their commerce with Cincinnati in favor of Louisville." Cincinnati Commercial, April 22, 1870.
75 The "Green Line" in this instance was an arrangement between Cincinnati and St. Louis to ship fast freight to the South. They hoped to be able to send their goods through without a change of cars. Bills of lading were issued for the whole distance. The only weak point in the arrangement for Cincinnati was her hated rival, Louisville, standing in the gateway. Cincinnati Commercial, Dec. 5, 1869; Feb. 1, 1870.
1 Cincinnati Commerciol, Feb. 27, 1867; July 1, 1869.
2 Chicago, St. Louis, and Louisville had early connected themselves with the South adequately. Joseph Nimmo, Jr., First Annual Report of the Internal Com- merce of the United States, 1867.
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get into the South Atlantic states and even into some parts of Tennessee, she chose often to send her freight to Baltimore and thence by water (and often by rail again) to their destination.3 Her route through Louis- ville to this region was almost as impractical as the Baltimore route, even without considering the special impediments at the Falls City. In order to reach Knoxville, her goods had to go through Louisville, Nashville, and Chattanooga, a distance of 598 miles. By a direct connection the distance would be only 270 miles.4 A Cincinnatian is moved to exclaim : "What a nice freight route Cincinnati has to the South via Southern In- diana, Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Northern Alabama to Chat- tanooga ! * * * There is no city in the United States that labors under such disadvantages, and it is a wonder that Cincinnati gets as much Southern trade as she does." 5 A railroad running directly south through Kentucky would connect up the 6,000 miles of railway centering in Cin- cinnati with the 4,000 miles accessible from East Tennessee.6
As proud as she was in upholding her name as a city, Cincinnati was forced to admit that all was not well; and she saw darker days ahead. It was all due to a lack of proper railroad connections. The mayor in 1868, in arguing for a direct Southern connection, said: "I conceive it to be a matter of vital importance to the continued growth and prosperity of our city, and one that must, sooner or later, be accomplished, if we desire to enjoy and maintain our present rank as a city." 7 It was apparent that if she was to have the railroad, she must build it herself. The South was not cut off from a market in the North so much as Cincinnati was cut off from a Southern market.8 She could, therefore, expect little more than moral support from the South. The road would un- doubtedly be a great boon for the regions through which it should run; and with this argument she won the hearts of the people of Central Kentucky, who had long wanted an outlet for their timber and minerals and farm products .? If the city would only go after it, the Chamber of Commerce said, "There is a greater extent of country accessible to Cin- cinnati manufacturers than is within the exclusive reach of any other city in the United States." 10
The problem, then, of Cincinnati was to get her wealth turned into the right direction. The editor of the Cincinnati Commercial pointedly said : "We may exhaust ourselves in placing parks on every hill, and cutting a superb avenue for each one of our Councilmen * * * and yet we will not bring business to the city. * * We do not absolutely need feudal castles, with cloud-capped towers for the sick, and gorgeous tem- ples for the poor, and work houses modelled after the Tuilleries ; but we do require more vital blood in our arteries, a surer grasp upon the broad and fertile and populous region that is naturally our territory-that was ours before we were exceeded in energy and distanced in enterprise." 11
3 Cincinnati's trade in North Carolina, South Carolina, and East Tennessee often went to Baltimore and then on to its destination. Cincinnati Semi-Weekly Gazette, May 7, 1869; Cincinnati Daily Gazette, Nov. 11, 1865; Cincinnati Commercial, June 25, 1869.
4 Cincinnati Daily Gazette, Nov. 8, 1865.
5 Cincinnati Commercial, June 13, 1870.
6 Ibid., June 25, 1869.
7 Cincinnati Commercial, May 2, Sept. 11, 1868.
8 An editorial in the Cincinnati Daily Gazette, April 19, 1866, says, "The rail- road to Cincinnati is not a necessity to the South. She has connections with other places on the Ohio and Mississippi. It is a necessity to the immediate country through which it will pass, and to Cincinnati, which will receive the great com- mercial benefits, and whose commercial supremacy depends on building this road." A similar idea at an earlier time is expressed in the booklet, Railroad Proceedings and Address of Fulton and Vicinity to the People of Ohio (Cincinnati, 1835). 9 Cincinnati Semi-Weekly Gazette, March 27, 1868.
10 Cincinnati Commercial, June 25, 1869.
11 Nov. 25, 1868; Sept. 11, 1868.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
The project was talked in season and out. The Chamber of Commerce, Board of Trade, City Council, the mayor, and numerous other public- spirited citizens kept the question alive. The city's leading newspapers, the Cincinnati Commercial, the Cincinnati Semi-Weekly Gazette, the Cin- cinnati Daily Gazette, and the Cincinnati Enquirer, continually kept up the agitation. But three years after the end of the war saw nothing definitely accomplished, despite the continuous campaign. By this time it was becoming evident with increasing force that the period of discussion should end and that either something should be done or the city should "take a position of future commercial insignificance with becoming humility." 12 "Again and again," a supporter continues, "have the neces- sity and advantage of effecting an unbroken rail route to the Southern system of roads been expounded and advocated, but never has the urgency been greater than at this time, when other cities around us are not only securing to themselves all prospective advantages, but absolutely seizing 11pon ours." 13
Not all of Cincinnati's activities concerning a Southern railway was mere discussion, nor had all her activities been confined to the period following the Civil War. In fact the idea of a railway from Cincinnati south into Tennessee had not originated within the Queen City. It was born of the far-seeing mind of John C. Calhoun. As far back as 1835 Cincinnati was convinced that she should aid this project. Enthusiasm for the connection had permeated the proposed route from South Carolina to the Ohio River. Charters had been obtained from all the states to be traversed. The only difficulty had been encountered in Kentucky, where the charter was granted only on condition that the railroad upon reaching Lexington should branch out into three lines, running to Mays- ville, Cincinnati, and Louisville.14 This was strangely prophetic of Kentucky's subsequent attitude on roads crossing her boundaries. But the panic of 1837 soon brought about an indefinite delay. The next important attempt came in 1854 when the Kentucky Legislature char- tered the Kentucky Union Railroad to run to the Tennessee line. Cin- cinnati's interest was shown in this attempt by the fact that seven of the trustees were from that city.15 Encountering the panic of 1857, this movement soon spent itself and was succeeded by another attempt in 1859 in the form of the Lexington and East Tennessee Railroad, which was to be an extension of the Kentucky Central to Knoxville. An appeal was made to Cincinnati for $1,000,000. By the time about half of this amount had been promised, subscriptions began to lag. Still there seems to have been more driving force behind this movement than any of the preceding ones.16 A resolution offered at one of the meetings in Cincinnati declared that the citizens of the city might have "the double honor of claiming that Cincinnati originated and completed the most
12 Cincinnati Commercial, March 31, 1868. The mayor besought the council to keep the subject before the people. Continuing, he said, "To maintain the proud supremacy of Cincinnati, in population, trade and manufactures, we must act energetically and quickly." Ibid., June 20, 1868. A writer in the Cincinnati Com- mercial, Sept. 16, 1868, said, "She cannot stand idle longer, devoid of all exertion, and look upon the efforts now being displayed by her rival sister on the west, to pluck the fruit from Southern fields without arousing from her present disinclina- tion to action."
13 Cincinnati Commercial, Aug. 18, 1868.
14 H. P. Boyden, The Beginnings of the Cincinnati Southern Railway. A sketch of the years 1869-1878 (Cincinnati, 1901), II; History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, by various authors, 298; Railroad Proceedings and Address of Fulton and Vicinity to the People of Ohio (Pamphlet in Wisconsin Historical Library) ; Cin- cinnati Commercial, Feb. 23, 1871.
15 The Railroad Speech Delivered at the Merchants' Exchange *, by W. M. Corry, 18.
16 The Cincinnati Southern Railway, A History, edited by Chas. G. Hall, 32.
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important road in the world, for it is not only the tap root of her pros- perity and an outlet from the Ohio Valley, which is richer in corn than the Nile, but it is the imperishable bond of union between the Western and Southern states." 17 However, the Civil war soon afterwards came and sealed the fate of this attempt.
During the period following the war, Cincinnati had the hearty sup- port and cooperation of all Central Kentucky in any movement that would extend a railway southward-the initiative, indeed, often being taken by this region. The lack of railway facilities in this part of the state and the hostility here toward the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, as previously noted, always made Central Kentucky an ally of Cincinnati.18 A movement for extending the Kentucky Central Railroad was early instituted. Great interest was shown by the counties lying in the south- ern part of the state near the Tennessee line. Pulaski County voted a subscription of $200,000, and Wayne County voted $50,000.19 For want of money this project was never carried out. Still the idea of extending this road to the Tennessee line was never given up until the southern connection had been made.
Another plan that persisted for a long time was the extension of the Kentucky Central or the construction of a connecting road to the Lebanon branch of the Louisville and Nashville, and there await the driving power of that road to land them in the South. It was necessary to build only sixty-five miles to accomplish this. As usual the men of Central Kentucky went to Cincinnati for money. A Paris (Kentucky) citizen argued the question thus from Cincinnati's standpoint: "The question is not simply whether she will attempt to extend the theatre of her com- merce, but rather whether she will sit by quietly and permit so large a portion of the trade which is naturally and geographically tributary to her to be diverted from her by the enterprise of a rival city; and this, too, when she may not only retain that trade by building a road of sixty-five miles, but may add immensely to it, and make available for that purpose the very means that are being used to divert it from her." 20
The Blue Grass region became enthusiastic over this movement. Meet- ings were held in the interest of it, notably at Richmond, Lexington, and Paris. Every meeting sent delegations to Cincinnati to beg for aid and to plead that now was the chance for Cincinnati to get her Southern connection. The first named city also sent a committee to Louisville to see if perchance help might be secured there.21 The Cincinnati Cham- ber of Commerce appointed a committee to investigate, as was their custom. This committee reported that the road ought to be built and that Cincinnati business men should subscribe $500,000.22 But just as such movements turned out in Cincinnati, this one died after the discussion was finished. This last failure provoked this wrathful editorial from
17 The Railroad Speech Delivered at the Merchants' Exchange * *
*, by W. M. Corry. 2. Another one of the resolutions continued, "Resolved, That this meeting is in favor of a Southern connection by Railroad via Knoxville with the Gulf, and believe it worth more economically, socially and politically than any other road." Ibid., 2.
18 At one time the Blue Grass region sent a consignment of ten thousand mules to Atlanta, which required three hundred hours. By a direct route it would have taken only forty hours. Cincinnati Commercial, Feb. 25, 1870.
19 Cincinnati Daily Gazette, Nov. 22, 1866; Collins, History of Kentucky, Vol. I, 171, 172.
20 Cincinnati Commercial, June 19, 1867.
21 Cincinnati Commercial, Feb. 21 ; March 7, 14, 27; June 17, 1867.
22 Ibid., April 16, 1867. The committee said in its report, "In urging this work upon the earnest and favorable attention of the people of Cincinnati, we do so not only without hostility to any other enterprise of a like character, but with the remark that it will be but the part of wisdom with our citizens to aid and encourage, by all possible means, the construction of all railroads leading in the direction of Cincinnati." Ibid., April 16, 1867.
Vol. II-25
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the Cincinnati Commercial: "If Lexington and the adjacent country shall have the enterprise to carry the project through, no doubt they will find good results for their expenditure, but they will have to depend on their own energies and credit, at least so far as Cincinnati is con- cerned, for this place has as much as it can do in contemplating the desirableness of a through independent line southward. When contem- plating becomes wearisome, it may be found that the hold which other places have on the section desirable to be reached will render anything beyond contemplation unnecessary." 23
In this region south of Cincinnati attempts of all kinds were set in motion. Many of them never got beyond the resolution stage; others got so far as to receive a few subscriptions. But wherever the move- ment originated or whatever route was proposed, Cincinnati was appealed to as the only power that could make a success of it. There were con- solidations of old routes and charters, and new charters were often obtained. Tennessee granted a charter and $10,000 per mile to a rail- way company to build a line from Chattanooga north to the Kentucky boundary, "thus leaving the responsibility of failing to form a direct con- nection with the Southern trade, with the people of Cincin- nati *
* *" 24 The Kentucky Legislature in 1867 after a hard fight chartered the Cincinnati, Lexington and East Tennessee Railroad, which was designed to fulfill Cincinnati's needs as far as permission to build the road was concerned. The charter was so framed as to allow this cor- poration to acquire the Kentucky Central and extend it southward. But its rights under the charter were much restricted. Moreover, the Ken- tucky Central refused to be identified with the movement, and so noth- ing came of it.25
These numerous efforts had made it perfectly plain to the railroad promoters in Cincinnati that new methods of financing a Southern con- nection must be undertaken. As before stated, Cincinnati capital did not readily flow into railroad development schemes. In the words of one of the capitalist spokesmen, "Let us say to Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and the rest of mankind in all kindness, You need not lift your long goose necks and stand on tip-toe peering into Cincinnati for railroad subscrip-
tions on the old plan. * * Don't rush into our newspapers with your gorgeous programmes, least of all, appeal to our public spirit when you want money of us, as private persons. Do business with us on business principles." 26 An entirely new independent railway directly to the South would undoubtedly be a bold undertaking, with many obstacles in the way. The country to be traversed was rough for long stretches through the Cumberland Mountains, with no railways to be tapped nor important connections to be made until Knoxville or Chat- tanooga were reached. Much of the country was unproductive, and there could be no reasonable assurance that local traffic would amount to enough to insure success as a monetary venture. However, the Cin- cinnatians were interested mostly in making a connection for their through freight.27 It was because of the large costs of a new line that the numerous smaller extensions and connections in Kentucky had been promoted. But it had now become evident that these methods could not succeed in mobilizing Cincinnati capital.28 Most of the moneyed
23 July 27, 1867.
24 Chattanooga Union, quoted in Cincinnati Commercial, Oct. 8, 1868; Ibid., Feb. 27. Oct. 18, 1867; Aug. 29, 1868; Feb. 19, 1869. .
25 Ibid., March 12, 18, 1867.
26 Cincinnati Commercial, Jan. 4, Nov. 17, 1868; American Annual Cyclopaedia, and Register of Important Events, 1870, 429.
27 Joseph Nimmo, Jr., First Annual Report on the Internal Commerce of the United States, 1876, 91, 92.
28 Cincinnati Cammercial, April 20, 1868. During the latter part of 1867 and
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
men of the city were too timid to invest their money in railroad schemes that had for their object the benefiting of the city as a whole more than the individual.
By 1868 the city was sufficiently aroused to begin to think of taking some municipal action. Why should not Cincinnati do as Louisville had been doing so successfully-vote large bond issues on the city's credit and use the proceeds in subscribing to railroads? It seems that the city had been so busily discussing the desirability of the Southern connection and expecting her capitalists to put their money into the venture, that she had forgotten to inquire into her own ability to aid such undertakings. But now when the period of discussion was over and she found herself face to face with no theory but an actuality, and when she now turned to the consideration of lending her own credit as a last resort, she dis- covered a half-forgotten clause of the Ohio constitution which had been inserted to prevent cities and other local governments from subscribing to wild schemes during the hard times before the war. This clause read : "The General Assembly shall never authorize any county, city, town, or township, by vote of its citizens, or otherwise, to become an owner in any joint stock company, corporation or association whatever; or to raise money for, or loan its credit to, or in aid of any such company, corporation, or association." 29
This, then, was a clear prohibition against the city aiding a railroad. But now. since the city was aroused for action of some kind. ways to escape this provision began to be investigated. The mayor, realizing that the hands of the city government were tied, nevertheless recommended to the City Council that "some suggestions might emanate from it in the shape of resolutions or addresses to the public." 30 Those who had been laboring so long for the Southern railroad set busily to work to prevent this first set-back from dampening the enthusiasm for the project. The most obvious method of procedure was to have the objectionable provision of the constitution repealed. The conditions that had caused the framers of the constitution to insert it had now disappeared. But there was one very serious objection to this method of attacking the prob- lem. Assuming that there would be no opposition to its repeal, still the time that would elapse before this line of action could be carried out. would in the eyes of the city's closest observers prove fatal to the city's efforts to capture the Southern trade. At the earliest the process of amending the constitution could not be carried through to completion before 1871 or 1872. So this method was not urged by the clear-sighted Cincinnatians. Nevertheless, this procedure was undertaken. In 1869 an amendment making it possible for cities to subscribe to railroads was introduced in the Ohio Legislature rather perfunctorily, along with cer- tain other amendments. But there was little support for it. and so failure was the result.31
The real friends of the Southern railroad, who wanted the connection at the earliest moment possible, set to work along another line. The prime mover in this was Edward A. Ferguson.32 In the City Council a com- mittee had been appointed on Mav 15. 1868, to inquire into the methods of getting the desired railway. They reported a few months later that it
the beginning of 1868 the whole question slumbered. The agitation that finally produced results broke out anew in 1868.
29 The Federal and State Constitution, Colonial Charters, and other Organic Laws of the United States (Washington, 1878), compiled by Ben Perley Poore, Part II. 1473. Art. VIII. Sec. 6.
80 Cincinnati Commercial, Feb. 17. Nov. 13, 1868.
31 Edward A. Ferguson, Founding of the Cincinnati Southern Railway (Cin- cinnati, 1005), 64; Cincinnati Commercial, March 25, 1869.
32 Boyden. The Beginnings of the Cincinnati Southern Railway. A Sketch of the Years 1869-1878, 118, 119; Cincinnati Commercial, April 22, 1869.
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was highly feasible and desirable that the city in its corporate capacity build the road.33 This was an entirely new idea to most of the Cincin- natians. However, Ferguson had been working on a bill along this line for many months. In November, 1868, it was published in the city papers. In this bill the city was to be given permission to vote on the question of a carefully delimited taxation to provide for $10,000,000 worth of bonds, which the city was to be allowed to issue and which were to be used in constructing a railroad.34
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