Beside the above chief products, the below-named articles are brought into market in small quantities by the "crackers," squatters, and negroes, and are sometimes exported, viz: hides, wool, sweet potatoes, ground-nuts, (peanuts,) tobacco, &c., &c. The principal imports are as follows:-from the Northern ports, miscellaneous cargoes of drygoods, groceries, &c., with the peculiar additions of Irish potatoes, hay, and gunny bagging from Boston, bacon and coal from Philadelphia, and corn and flour from Baltimore. Hay, timber, and lime is brought from Maine. Molasses, sugar, whisky, coil-rope and bacon from New Orleans. Molasses, sugar, and fruits from the West Indies. Railroad iron, hardware, crockery, and salt from England. The division of the chief exports is as follows:-to all the Northern, British, and French ports, cotton, rice, and naval stores; to the Gulf ports rice only; to San Francisco and Cuba lumber and rice. The comparative merits of the harbors of Savannah and Charleston have been much discussed. The advantage of Savannah lies in possessing a good bar, one over which large vessels can come at any stage of tide, while that off Charleston harbor is impassable, excepting at high water. The advantage of Charleston lies in the fact, that it is only one-third as far from the sea as Savannah, and that after the bar is passed no further obstruction is met with, whereas in Savannah, at a point about a mile below the city, some wrecks, sunk, it is said, by the British, to keep out the French fleet, have made a bar, which obliges most vessels to wait for high tide, and sometimes to lighten their cargoes. These disadvantages of both places will doubtless be remedied in course of time by science, although Savannah bids fair to be the first benefited. The business of the planters is transacted by factors, who sell their cotton and buyr forward their bagging, rope, &c., on commission. The commission merchants buy and sell for foreign parties, and act as agents for vessels. The country merchants are usually dealers in produce, selling their goods before harvest,, on the security of the expected crop. Factors and commission merchants are usually ple ged not to speculate in produce; and the speculators form a distinct class of business men. As the Brunswick scheme redivus seems to be now attracting some interest, perhaps it may be interesting to speculate upon the prospects of its success, which is a matter deeply concerning those interested in Savannah. That the harbor of Brunswick is an excellent one no one denies, but that it can ever draw away much of the trade which now flows to Savannah is very doubtful. The trade of Brunswick will, it is anticipated, come via the canal, (partly completed during the former "Brunswick bubble,") connecting the Altamaha with its harbor, and the proposed railroad from the city to strike the Flint River, (thus forming a connection with Apalachicola per steamers,) having a. branch from Troupville to Albany in Baker County, with the ultimate design of extending the main road to Pensacola; having in view, in either case, the procural of the through passage from California via the Isthmus and New Orleans, and from the Gulf cities, beside the freight and travel of the country itself. Now, Savannah having the same objects precisely in view, and being hastened by the rise of the Brunswick scheme, last year subscribed $600,000 in the name of the Corporation, provided that the same amount should be subscribed individually, for building an air line railroad to Albany, with the avowed intention of pushing it forward to Pensacola in case the Brunswick Company threatens to do the same with their line. Also, if the old filled up canal of Brunswick should be redug, I have no doubt that in less than a week there could be commenced a canal which it was long since proposed, (probably during the brighter days of the Brunswick Canal,) to make, in order to connect the Altamaha (in Tattnall Co.) with the Ogeechee River, where the existing canal leaves it. Thus, Savarnah will ever be equal to Brunswick in its facilities for obtaining the trade of this section of country; while its vastly superior capital, its enterprise, and its public spirit, will ever keep it ahead. From the wonderful richness of the agricultural and the mineral portions of Georgia, and the geographical position of Savannah, together with the enterprising character of the people, it is impossible not to foresee for the former a prosperity which will eminently entitle it to its title of the "Empire State of the South;" while the "manifest destiny" of the latter seems to be that it will rapidly increase in importanc, and permanently occupy a position among southern commercial cities, next to Mobile if not to New Orleans. G. In connection with the statements of our correspondent, relative to the Commerce, etc., of Savannah, we add a few particulars as to the railroads which converge to that city, together with some statistics of the cotton, and a few other branches of trade. The railways which converge to the city of Savannah, with the great extensions that are now being made, and others in contemplation, will soon connect her with a large part of the best cotton-growing region of the south, and increase very largely the shipments from the port. The railways which transport cotton and other products intended for the Savannah markets, are the following, viz: Miles 1st. The Central Railroad of Georgia, connecting Macon and Savannah, length.. 192 2d. Waynesboro' and Augusta road, connecting Augusta with the Central road and Savannah 53 3d. The Milledgeville and Eaton road, connecting these towns with the Central road and Savannah.. 39 4th. The Southwestern road of Georgia, connecting the southwestern counties of the State with the Central road and Savannah. 50 5th. The Columbus and Fort Valley roads, connecting the city of Columbus and the rich valleys of the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers with Savannah, via Macon and the Central road... 6th. The Macon and Western Railroad, connecting Atlanta and the middle counties with the Central road and Savannah.. 71 101 7th. The Western and Atlantic Railroad, connecting Chattanooga, and a considerable portion of Alabama, Tennessee, and northern Georgia with Savannah, via Macon or Augusta... 140 8th. The Georgia Railroad, connecting Atlanta and the middle counties of Georgia with Savannah, via Augusta, Waynesboro', and the Central Railroad, or via the Savannah river... 171 12th. The Rome branch of the Western and Atlantic road... 17 13th. The East Tennessee Railroad, connecting Eastern Tennessee with Savannah 82 Total length..... .1,053 With the exceptions of Nos. 2, 5, 10, 11, and 13, the railroads enumerated above have been completed and are now in operation. The five under construction will be finished in a few months. The completion of No. 5 will cause an immediate increase in the receipts of cotton at Savannah, to the extent of 90,000 or 100,000 bales. The completion of Nos. 2, 10,11, and 13, will also give an increase of business, but perhaps less in amount. In addition to the roads already mentioned, companies have beer formed. for the construction of a road to connect Savannah directly with the south- The following are the total receipts of cotton by the railroads, the river, The following table shows the exports of cotton from Savannah from Sep- temper 1, 1851, to September 1, 1852, as compared with same time the The following table exhibits the exports of rice and lumber from the port of Savannah for the two years ending September 1, 1852:— EXPORTS OF Rice and lumber from SAVANNAH IN 1850-51 AND 1851-52. France.... We also annex a comparative statement of the receipts, exports, and stock of cotton from 1st of September, 1851, to 1st of September, 1852: Receipts. Exports. Stock. Receipts. 1842.... 299,173 280,826 3,347 1847.... 245,496 1843. 243,324 244,575 2,151 1848. 1844.... 305,016 304,543 2,729 1845.... 189,076 186,306 5,922 1850. 1846.... 236,029 234,151 7,787 Exports. Stock. 243,233 10,050 406,906 405,461 11,500 1849. 340,025 312,294 317,434 4,500 1851.... 351,518 353,068 2,950 Savannah is equal to any city in the Union, sys a cotemporary, in the enterprise, energy, and public spirit of her citizens. She has, during the last few years, assumed a large debt, in giving aid to different internal improvements, which were necessary to secure her the trade of the interior; and neither her spirit or her resources are exhausted. The great object which is left her to accomplish, is to make her port equal to the accommodation of the increased business she is enjoying, and to that object her citizens have addressed themselves with characteristic promptness and energy. Congress having appropriated $40,000 to improve the Savannah River, and it having been ascertained that $200,000 was necessary for this object, they have determined that they would not lose the appropriation of the General Government, or content themselves with a partial accomplishment of its object, and have, in public meeting, authorized the City Council to appropriate the sum of $160,000, to be expended, with the appropriation of Congress, by the officers of the United States, for the improvement of the river. Art. V.-THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD AND ITS WESTERN CONNECTIONS.* THE elaborate article on the History of the English Railways, which led the contents of the May issue of this Magazine, gave a full, and, we may venture to add, so interesting a history of the rise and progress of this great department of industrial enterprise in what Americans sometimes still style the "mother country," by courtesy, and has prepared the way for the present paper. The great work, whose distinctive name heads this article, is entitled, unquestionably, to historical prominence, by the circumstance that it was the first chartered and fully organized railroad project in the United States—a fact which should be known to those who have not already been made aware of it, and revived in the memories of such as may have forgotten it. The events which we are about to briefly trace, will set this point beyond historical doubt in the minds of all readers conversant with the history of the internal improvement system in this country. Like most of the great achievements of inventive genius and philanthropic labor which have blessed the world, the project of the Baltimore and Onio Railroad had its birth amid circumstances unostentatious, and prospects discouraging to the outside observer. To Philip E. Thomas and George Brown, of Baltimore, whose portraits, marked by the deep facial lines of advanced yet placid age, accompany the volume before us, is due the honor of conceiving, and introducing successfully to the notice of their enterprising fellow merchants, the grand scheme of bringing into practical proximity, and at least figurative conflux, the waters of the Ohio and the Patapsco, and of binding together, in commercial sympathy, with bands of unconscious iron, not only the dwellers of their naturally fertile valleys, but those also of the great valley of the Mississippi itself, with those along the borders of the Chesapeake-thus compelling them to unite to swell the same tide of human progress, if not the same ocean. These gentlemen (par nobile fratrum) had been called from the cares of their countingrooms to aid the machinery of Commerce through the kindred department of finance. The first named was the president of the Mechanics' Bank of Baltimore, the other a member of its Board of Direction. They had frequently conferred, without special design, though lamentingly, respecting the loss which their city was suffering, locally, from the detraction of a large amount of Western trade, which Nature seemed, to them, clearly to have designed for the Monumental City, to cities farther east, through the internal improvements of Pennsylvania and the great Erie Canal of the Empire State. Their deliberations, beginning with mere fragmentary suggestions, soon assumed the form and hue of the systemat.. projection of an enterprise, whose final and triumphant execution they have both lived to proudly, witness. At the date of these private conferences of these bankers, no railroad worthy of the name, as now understood, was anywhere in operation on A History and Description of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, with an Appendix, containing a full account of the ceremonies and procession attending the laying of the corner stone by Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, on the 4th of July, 1828, and an original and complete report of the great opening celebration at Wheeling, January, 1853. To which is added a supplement. Illustrated by a map and six original portraits. By a citizen of Baltimore. John Murphy & Co. 1853. |