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Public Railroad Construction and the Development of Private Enterprise in the South Before 1861

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Milton S. Heath
Milton S. Heath
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina
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Extract

The paper is based upon research over a rather long period into the public activities in railroad construction in the southern states. Table I-A presents a quantitative summary of public contributions in cash, bonds, and other securities; government-endorsed bonds; remission of Federal import duties; and estimated realized values of Federal land grants prior to 1861. It represents an attempt to give a preliminary summary of the public effort. The estimates on public land grants are tentative, and other items are subject to further refinements through additional studies. It does not represent the total of the public effort, since no account is taken in this summary of the investment values of the many important public and quasi-public contributions in services, the uses of public streets and other properties, tax exemptions, and banking privileges. An adequate appraisal of these must await further research. The summary does reflect, however, some of the outstanding features of the public railroad-building effort, which will supply a useful background for the consideration of the main problem of this paper.

Type
North American Railroads
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 10 , Supplement S1 , 1950 , pp. 40 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1950

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References

1 Heath, Milton S., “Public Cooperation in Railroad Construction in the Southern United States to 1861,” unpublished dissertation for the doctoral degree (1937), Widener Library, Harvard University. Additional research since 1937 has added considerable new data, primarily upon local governmental contributions and more especially pertaining to county subscriptions.Google Scholar

2 The table combines the summary in the original study, page 229, with the new data that has been collected since 1937.

3 The sum of $3,000,000, attributed to the value of banking privileges in Georgia in my original study, has been omitted from the present summary for the following reasons: the item is not strictly comparable with others in the table; similar services have not been evaluated for other states; and I have some doubts about the accuracy of the figures suggested in the case of Georgia.

4 Only one railroad in Louisiana received a grant and the amount was small. The same was true in Arkansas, but only one short railroad was undertaken in the latter state prior to 1861, and only part of it was constructed. The estimate for Federal land grants is of cash values realized for construction prior to 1861

5 Savannah Republican, May 15 and June 10, 1824; Charleston Courier, October 27, 1827; New Orleans Courier, December 2, 1836; Virginia Board of Public Works, 26th Annual Report, 1841; Richmond Inquirer, November 14, 1845; Norfolk, New Era, July 25, 1846; Louisville (Ky.) Journal, April 22, 1847; Mobile Commercial Register, June 7, 1848.

6 Charleston, Savannah, and Augusta, are conspicuous early cases, and Mobile and Louisville later ones. Mobile Commercial Register, November 29, 1847, March 22, 1848; Louisville Journal, May 4, 1847.Google Scholar

7 References are very numerous. Representative are Virginia House Journal, 1830, December I; Kentucky Sen. Jour., 1830–31, p. 8; “Crisis,” New Orleans Courier, April 4, 1837; Louisville Journal, April 10, 1847; Staunton (Va.) Spectator, November 6, 1850; “Our City Capitalists,” New Orleans Picayune, January 17, 1851; “Mobile & Ohio Railroad,” ibid., February 7, 1851; Florida Board of Internal Improvements, Report, 1854.

8 Arkansas, Constitution, 1836, Art. VII; Florida, Constitution, 1838, Art. XI, sec. 2; Georgia Laws, 1826, “Act to Establish a Bd. of Pub. Works”; Kentucky Laws, 1835, chap. 837; Louisiana, Constitution, 1852, Title VI, Art 109; North Carolina Laws, 1819, chap. 2; South Carolina Statutes, 1819, par. 2226; Tennessee, Constitution, 1834, Art. XI, sec. 9; Virginia, Constitution, 1851, Art V, sees. 14–18.

9 Gov. Tyler, John, “Message,” Virginia Sen. Jour., 1826, p. 6; Gov. Wilson Lumpkin, “Messages,” Georgia Sen. Jours., 1833, 1835; Salisbury (N.C.) Internal Improvement Convention, Report, October 10, 1833; Gov. Robert W. Robertson, “Message,” Virginia House Jour., 1833–36, p. 7; Gov. McNutt, “Message,” Mississippi House Jour., 1839; Gov. D. Johnson, “Message,” South Carolina Sen. Jour., 1848, p. 7; Nashville Republican Banner, “Gov. Jones on Railroads,” January 19, 1848; Gov. H. V. Johnson, “Message,” Georgia House Jour., 1857.Google Scholar

10 De Bow's Review, XVI, 78–80.

11 Penny savings banks were operated on a philanthropic basis, and building and loan associations became numerous in the 1840's and 1850's.

12 “Report of Board of Internal Improvements,” Alabama Legit. Docs., 1830–31; Gov. Giles, W. B., “Message,” Virginia Legis. Docs., 1827; Georgia Board of Public Works, “Report of 1826,” Georgia Legis. Docs., 1828.Google Scholar

13 Ibid.; Gov. Roman, (La.) “Message,” January 5, 1835, American Railroad Journal, January 31, 1835; Tuscaloosa (Ala.) Intelligencer, August I, 1838; Mobile Commercial Register, February 26 and June 7, 1848; Nashville Republican Banner, “Gov. Jones on Railroads,” January 19, 1848.Google Scholar

14 Messages of Governors Lumpkin (Ga.), Giles (Va.), and Johnson (S.C.), cited above; Ga. Bd. of Pub. Wks., “Report,” Ga. Legis. Docs., 1828; Eatonton (Ga.) Railroad Convention, 1831, Proceedings; Gov. Tazwell, “Message,” Va. Legis. Docs., 1834; Tennessee House Jour., 1837–38, p. 866; [Caldwell, Joseph], The Numbers of Carlton, addressed to the people of North Carolina, on a central rail-road through the state (New York: G. Long, 1828).Google Scholar

15 Gov. Gilmer, George, “Message,” Ga. House Jour., 1838, p. 8; Mobile Commercial Register, March 28–29, 1839; Gov. Brown, “Message,” November 3, 1859, North Carolina Legis. Docs., 1860–61, No. 24.Google Scholar

16 Norfolk. Herald, April 6, 1833; New Orleans Courier, December 2, 1836; Tarboro (N.C.) Free Press, July 3, 1832, July 23, 1836; Augusta Chronicle, May 20, 1841; Mobile Commercial Register, November 29, 1847, February 26, March 22, May 1–25, December 11–12, 1848; Nashville Republican Banner, September 22, 1857.

17 Ga. Laws, 1855–56, pp. 118, 123; 1860, pp. 199–204; La. Laws, 1852, chap. 175; Miss. Laws, 1852, chaps. 40, 57; Tenn. Laws, 1849–50, chap. 39; 1851–52, chaps. 171, 191, 303; 1853–54; 1855–56.

18 Apparently this was the case in Tennessee: Nashville Republican Banner, March 6, 1857.

19 Ga. Bd. of Pub. Wks., “Report,” Ga. Legis. Docs., 1828; Lumpkin, Wilson, Removal of the Cherokee Indians from Georgia (New York, 1907), I, 38–40, 112–17, 135–39, 151–53, 170–78, 245–47.Google Scholar

20 North Carolina and South Carolina followed a similar policy prior to the 1850's.

21 Staunton Spectator, “Local Subscriptions,” December 4, 1850.

22 Reports of various railroads; reports of Board of Public Works; Abingdon Democrat, October 18, 1851.

23 Norfolk. Herald, August 12, 1836; Norfolk. New Era, July 18, 1846; Staunton Spectator, November 20, 1850; Richmond Enquirer, “Virginia's System of Internal Improvements,” April 2, 1858; ibid., May 25, 1858; Petersburg Intelligencer, “Ports of Richmond and Petersburg,” rep. in Richmond Enquirer, May 15, 1858.

24 Complaints about the failures of the Virginia policy: Abingdon Democrat, November I, 1851; Richmond, and Railroad, Danville, 9th Annual Report. 1856; Richmond Enquirer, April 6, 1858.Google Scholar

25 Tuscaloosa Intelligencer, June 4, 1831; Mobile Commercial Register, February 26, 1848; Mobile Advertiser, July 28, 1849, February 16, 1850, October 7, 1851, March 9, 1853, April 2 and December 6, 1854; Huntsville (Ala.) Democrat, June 2, 1853; Mobile & Ohio Railroad, Annual Report, 1852, 1853; Tennessee and Alabama Railroad, Annual Report, 1851; Georgia Railroad, Engineer's Report, 1836; Central of Georgia Railroad, Engineer's Report, 1840; Columbus (Ga.) Times, October 24, 1848, April 5, 1851, April 2, 1852; Columbus (Ga.) Times and Sentinel, July I and August 3, 1853; Louisiana Laws, 1838, 83; 1839, 68; 1855, 103, 180; New Orleans, Jackson & Grt. Nor. R.R., Vicksburg, Shreveport & Texas R.R., New Orleans, Opelousas & Grt. Western R.R., Reports to Governor of Louisiana, 1860; Mississippi Laws, 1841, 83; 1850, 10; 1852, 35, 40, 60, 61; 1859, 14; South Carolina Laws, 1846, II, 408; Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston R.R., Annual Report, 1838; Charleston Courier, August I, 1831; Tennessee Senate Committee on Internal Improvements, Report, 1841; Tennessee Laws, 1851–52, 244; 1853–54, 318–19, 322; Virginia Laws, 1844–45, 89; Brown, C. K., A State Movement in Railroad Development (Chapel Hill, 1928), pp. 78,Google Scholar 109–19; Phillips, U. B., History of Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt (New York, 1908), pp. 344. 354. 377.Google Scholar

26 In fact, it was customary, as an inducement to obtain private subscriptions in services and kind, to pay one fourth of the value of services rendered in each out of the public subscriptions.

27 Ga. Bd. of Pub. Works, “Report,” Ga. Legis. Docs., 1828; Richmond Enquirer, “Smeaton,” July 21, 1837; Mobile Commercial Register, February 26 and June 7, 1848; Charleston, & Savannah, R.R., Annual Report, 1857–1858.Google Scholar