Railroads Fight to Enter Pittsburgh. Great State Convention January 14, 1846

It was but natural that the great undeveloped wealth of the Mississippi Valley should attract those who had any vision as to the future of this vast country. This enormous wealth must be dumped into the great cities planted along the Atlantic seaboard.

General Washington, skilled surveyor that he was, early trained his eyes westward, and he spent much time in outlining plans for connecting the Potomac and Ohio Rivers by means of a canal. Twenty-five years after his death the Erie Canal was opened, when the merchants of Philadelphia and Baltimore realized they must awaken or succumb.

Baltimore believed a railroad should be built to the West. The Baltimore and Ohio, first of all great railroads, shows by its name the purpose for which it was incorporated. Pennsylvania, however, undertook to connect the West by a system of combined railroads and canals.

From the first both cities looked to Pittsburgh as the logical terminus of their improvements. Then began a struggle of Philadelphia-Baltimore rivalry, which lasted for forty-three years, from 1828 to 1871.

In 1828 Pennsylvania had given a charter to the Baltimore and Ohio, by which it could construct its line through Southwestern Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh. The members of the Legislature at that time did not consider future competition, for the State works had not been built.

The charter was granted for fifteen years, and, in 1839, another act extended its provisions until 1847. This act, among other onerous conditions, was discriminating in favor of traffic to Philadelphia; it also contained a heavy State tax on freight, and the company could not accept it.

The Pennsylvania State works from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh were completed in 1834. When the charter of the Baltimore and Ohio expired in 1843, the road was completed only as far as Cumberland.

The company tried to obtain better terms from Pennsylvania. The residents of the western part of the State were all eager for an additional outlet to the coast, but the Philadelphia politicians were unwilling to yield any concession to their Baltimore rivals.

37Several years later it was admitted that the State works would never provide adequate transportation facilities to the West, even though in excess of $10,000,000 had already been expended and the State seriously involved. Pennsylvanians were made to realize that railroads were superior to canals and that the commercial solution of Philadelphia lay in a central railroad to Pittsburgh.

The feeling in all three cities reached fever heat. The legislative hall was the battleground and all interests were well represented. The battle centered on the bill granting right of way through Pennsylvania to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

Public meetings were held in Philadelphia and elsewhere. A State railroad convention was held at Harrisburg, January 14, 1846, where resolutions were adopted favoring the Central Railroad scheme and against the Baltimore and Ohio right of way grant.

The people of Pennsylvania believed since a railroad must be built it would be better for it to be run entirely through Pennsylvania and be a Pennsylvania institution. They also felt that if the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was given the franchise, it would be next to impossible to raise money to build the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Pittsburgh business interests were fearful if the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was refused admission to Pennsylvania that road would extend its rails farther down the Ohio to Wheeling, perhaps, and thus control river trade, which had been long enjoyed at Pittsburgh. Many meetings were held in Pittsburgh urging the support of the Baltimore bill. It must also be understood that State prejudice held back railroads from entering other States. In 1846 States rights theories were more potential than they are today.

In this connection the position of the Baltimore and Ohio was unfortunate and interesting. Either Pennsylvania or Virginia must charter the company before a road of great importance could be built. Neither State was willing to do so.

The Baltimore and Ohio bill was defeated in the Senate February 23, 1846, by a single vote. Philadelphia rejoiced and Pittsburgh was sad. The Senate reversed itself February 26, and Philadelphia was maddened beyond reason.

On April 10 the Baltimore bill passed the House, with an amendment providing that the grant to the Baltimore and Ohio should be null and void if the Pennsylvania Railroad obtained subscriptions of $3,000,000 in capital stock, of which $900,000 must be paid in cash by July 31. The bill passed the Senate and was signed by Governor Shunk, April 21.

Every effort was exerted to procure the subscriptions, a house-to-house canvass resulting in 2600 subscriptions. Nearly all of which were for five shares or less.

Philadelphia won the struggle and the conditions were met in time. 38Governor Shunk issued a proclamation announcing the grant to Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to be null and void.

In 1837 a group of Pittsburgh men obtained a charter for the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad. This with the design to get into Baltimore, as it would build fifty-eight miles of the route to that city.

That scheme fell through, but in 1843 the charter was renewed and the interest of the Baltimore crowd was obtained. But they did not seem to appreciate the advantage secured for them by the astute Pittsburgh business men, and the Pittsburgh and Connellsville relapsed into slumberland until 1853.

The Baltimore and Ohio had completed its line to Wheeling and the Pennsylvania was about to finish its line into Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh and Connellsville obtained authority to make connection with the Baltimore and Ohio at Cumberland. But new troubles arose. The president of the company embezzled the funds and the City of Baltimore failed to give as liberally as promised.

In spite of those obstacles the road was opened from Pittsburgh to Connellsville January, 1857. Then came the panic of 1857 and the depression by the prospect of the Civil War.

In 1864 the stretch of ninety miles between Uniontown and Cumberland again became a political matter. Thomas A. Scott, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, determined this link should not be built, as the last thing he wanted was a competing line in Pittsburgh.

On April 11, 1864, two bills were introduced into the Legislature. One claimed the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad had misused its charter; the other incorporated a new railroad from Connellsville. The bills passed and became laws without the approval of Governor Curtin.

Judge Grier in United States Court June 20, 1865, held the repeal of the Pittsburgh and Connellsville to be unconstitutional. This case now became a legal battle for years and eventually got into Congress and back into the Pennsylvania Legislature. On January 29, 1868, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania unanimously decided in favor of the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad. The next day the Legislature repealed the Act of 1864.

The happy ending was in spite of all litigation. Pittsburgh and the great mineral and lumber wealth along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Valleys was opened up, and on June 26, 1871, the Pittsburgh, Washington and Baltimore Railroad was formally opened and the long struggle for Pittsburgh ended.

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