Philadelphia: Feb[ruar]y 20/[18]59

Gentlemen,
I desire to call your
attention to the well-known case of
oppression & spoliation of the Bond &
Stockholders of the Richmond, Fredericksburg
& Potomac Rail Road  [Company] [perpertrated]
by the Virginia Central R. Road
Company involving as it does inci
dentally this distinctly, the imputations
of your Commonwealth. I have
heretofore endeavored to arouse the
People of Virginia so far as it 
might be done by so influential
a person to a ... of the fact
that the state had been []
charged with a [repudiation] of its
pledge given in the [] []
form to the Richmomnd & Fredericksburg
Company, in a [] not only
violating of the Law or the [component} 
of ordinary Justice, but in []
of the higher & more special obligation
of Sovereign honor & conscience.
I have been reluctantly compelled
to admit that this grave []
is at least technically & literally
true because [] into
the facts of the cases have allowed

my judgement no possible escape
from such a conclusion. It cannot
be improper therefore to appeal
in this matter directly to the Board
of Public Works of which honorable
Body you are the Selected members.
... the ... which the
allegation is based is ... it ...
in your power particularly to remedy.
I /.. it can hardly be doubted
that you have at heart the ...
& ... credit of the state you
so worthily represent. ... at ...
... it will be a fatal mistake 
to suppose that the Richmond & Fredericksburg
... is the only party as ...
... chiefly ... in a ...
determination of the ... While
I do not ... to ... as it has
been distinctly alleged in the most
public manner that the treatment
to which the Richmond & Fredericksburg
... has been subjected by the 
illegal encroachment of the Virginia

been an apparent wilful and
deliberate neglect of the indifutible
rights of the Richmond & Fredericksburg
Company, which neglect necessarily
suppresses, if persisted in candor the eri[...]
a forfeiter of the good [faith] of the
State pledged on the charter of this
Company. Indeed it does not admit
of dispute that the ancient & [...]
Commonwealth which nor confided to
you your important & delegated 
thanks is much more defly concerned
in the issue that has feind
[] & which is determined to be []
prosecuted by those who have it 
in hand to a [friend] with be it 
what it mat, than any mere
Confrontation, be over [ex-] the 
Depredation in its substancial neglect. This will 
be evident when you come to []
that the [] of a State in the present 
destruction of vengeance can not be
measured by millions & that the 
[] of a Sate

will fail to dismiss the []
[that] a state any more than one
individual can permit itself
to [repudiate] a plan and [under...led]
contract at its now [pleasure] a
profit & to the injury of those who
have treated its Honor in derogation
of all moral [] & [] []
of [] Election, without necessarily
riveting the denunciation & []
of any such act of violence & []
& without the inevitable [] of social,
political & [neccesary] credit.
If what I have said be
true there are then but three
parts here for [] & proper
[]

First, Is it true that the guarenteed
Rights of the Richmond & [] Company
have been deliberately & wickedly
impinged & usurpd by the Virginia
Central R Road Co; & that the
outraged [Company] is forced to []
to downright [robbery] because it [has]
in vain sought to outlaw [redress] for
the damage it [has] [endured] & is now
suffering from the Courts of the
State.
Second, Is it not on the power
of the Board of Public Works to apply
a [] in this case to prevent
all future Enquiries altho it may
not be in its power to afford any
[redress] for past wrong? Their be-
lieving the State as far as []
from the [state] as far as []
from the [] of complicity either
direct or indirect, with these []
proceedings?
Third, What will be
[], the effect of the credit of
Virginia if she shall insist on
becoming a
party, however indirectly to the
practical repudiation of the Charter
of the Richmond & [Fredericksburg]
[], as against [] & Hock-
holding [reviewing] in other States
of the Union.