Alexandria Gazette

ROAD FROM FREDERICKSBURG TO ALEXANDRIA.

To the Editor of the Alexandria Gazette.

When newspaper statements have the effect to produce conviction on the public mind, it is not surprising that those concerned should pronounce them gratuitous, and, on erroneous grounds, assail the party making them, in the absence of argument sustained by proof. To this motive I ascribe the remarks of the Fredericksburg Arena.

No reference was made by me to the Rail Road from Fredericksburg to Richmond: nor did I speak of the extension of the Road from Potomac Creek to Washington. An experience of nearly twenty years, to an unprejudiced mind, is amply sufficient to determine the propriety of improving the road between Fredericksburg and Alexandria--the prophecy of the Editor of the Arena to the contrary, notwithstanding. He is welcome to his opinions, but is assured that they have no weight in opposition to the proposed measure of improving the said road. In the winter of 1831-32 the navigation of the Potomac was closed three months, and the shortest period of obstruction is never less than five or six weeks; which, according to the necessity of a regular, punctual, and certain transportation of the great Southern Mail, during the interesting period of the Session of Congress, must justify an appropriation of public money, or other measures for the accomplishment of the object.

The Editor of the Arena may well doubt the truth of his own observations, when he charges me with jealousy of the projected Rail Road to Potomac Creek, which is at this moment closed to navigation by the freeze of a single night. As to the location of the road through Dumfries, it is altogether unimportant; as that place, like its neighbor, Fredericksburg, has long since ceased to rank in the geographical enumeration of the flourishing towns of our country.

If a Rail Road could be obtained on the said route, with depots at convenient distances, how easy would it be for the farmers and merchants from Culpeper, Fauquier, and other adjacent counties, to choose their market. It is well known that Flour, Wheat, and Tobacco, are always lower in Fredericksburg than in the District of Columbia; and even the little town of Occoquan usually bids higher for Wheat. The transmission of the Mail would admit of competition for the contract, which has been, for many years, the monopoly of the Steamboat Company—no one caring to invest capital in an uncertain opposition. The Mail would be carried from Fredericksburg to Washington, with ease, in five hours, and, if necessary, in less time.

Thousands have been appropriated by the Government on objects of less utility; and I do verily believe, if active exertions were used by the Congressional Representation from the Southern States, including Virginia, that an appropriation would be granted, on a footing with that of the Cumberland Road, which, although deemed unconstitutional, has ever been considered a measure of absolute necessity, in the regular transportation of the United States' Mail.

A Friend to Internal Improvements.

Dumfries, January 4, 1834.