only result, when private speculations were permitted too much to mingle with and influence public undertakings. To nations, years are but as days, and the great works of a mighty people, as they ought to be constructed for an unlimited duration, must require, and must be expected to require, a long series of years for their completion. The works that should be undertaken, as they would be supplied with funds from an unfailing source, would advance steadily, if slowly, and the people would look forward to their termination with unabated confidence. The road or the canal, of which even eight or ten miles were constructed in one year, would, in eight or ten years, begin to accommodate a large extent of country and many people. And if many of these improvements were going on, some in every part of our extended union, more people and a far greater surface of country would be benefited in a given term of years, than if the whole expenditure had been lavished on any one project what soever. It is true, that under such an arrangement, so many splendid projects might not arise nor be patronized near the seat of government, nor in the centre of the country, but the extremities would receive their due attention. No efforts could then be made to awaken the cupidity or ambition of particular States, by prospects or promises of local or partial advantages, no lure could at any time be thrown out by an artful or ambitious administration to ensnare the unwary or the mercenary, in States or districts, which they might, at particular moments, wish to influence or govern. But all parts of the country would partake of the national munificence-all would flourish under the uniform distribution and expenditure of the national wealth. We know not whether we can give a better exemplification of the nature, management and probable results of these great operations, than is presented in the following passages from the speech of Mr. Smith: "Breakwaters, sea-walls, and artificial harbours are becoming fashionable. For the Delaware Break-water, you have just appropriated $2,325,627. The commerce of Philadelphia, broken down by the manufacturing mania, must be revived, and this is an effort, at the expense of the public treasury to do so; and which, according to every experience upon public works, will cost you $5,000,000 before it is finished. It is said this will be a place of protection to distressed mariners, and especially to those of the south. If the object is protection to southern mariners, why place it at the mouth of the Delaware Bay? There was no plan or estimate for any thing of this character, for the protection of distressed mariners from the Capes of Delaware in the north, to the mouth of the Sabine in the south, a dangerous coast of more than 2000 miles long. There the distressed mariners are left to buffet the waves. "You are also asked by a few fishermen, who had settled on Nantucket Island, to construct an artificial harbour for their especial accommodation, although they have Boston almost in sight on one side, and Martha's Vineyard on the other ;-two excellent harbours. Among the reasons assigned for this very expensive work, is a cogent oue by the distinguished engineer who made the survey. He says, for want of such an barbour, they frequently lose favourable periods for making the voyage round Cape Horn. Nantucket lies in about 42° north, and Cape Horn in 50° south, seven thousand miles distant across the tropics, where they may meet every wind that blows, and are driven to every point of the compass. Where the vessels are one while becalmed, and the next hour a hurricane. "Mr. Smith remarked, that when the bill to make an appropriation for the repairs of the Cumberland road was before the Senate, he stated the average cost of that road had exceeded $13,000. It was contradicted by one gentleman, who attempted to prove, from documents, that it did not exceed $6000 per mile. In defence of what he had then stated, as well as to lay before the Senate an official statement of the cost of the road-making system, in which the United States had so largely embarked, he had collected certain documents of 1827. "In a Report from the Treasury Department, 6th January, 1827, relative to the cost of that road, it appeared it had cost, up to that period, from Cumberland to Wheeling, a distance of ouly 130 miles, $1,710,298.93, which gives an average of $13,156 per mile, on the whole distance. The sum paid to commissioners and a superintendent for that 130 miles, is $78,430 47, which will average $604 31 per mile, for superintendence only-a sum sufficient itself, to make a good road. "Caspar W. Weaver, the superintendent, in an official report of the 25th of May, 1827, to the chief engineer, gives his estimate of $328,983 68, then indispensably necessary for the repairs of that 130 miles, which will average $2,522 95 per mile, for repairs only! "Mr. Weaver, in another official report, 16th November, 1827, to the chief engineer, says-' It was of great moment that a system or plan for the regular repairs of that great monument of the wisdom and munificence of the General Government, should be established by Congress.' And then goes on to say-'the road had become too bad to be mended, and must, in a great degree, be made anew.' And then further adds-' without constant repairs it could never be travelled!' "So incredible are the facts relative to the cost of this road, that it had become necessary to prove to the Senate, by their own official documents, the truth of their own acts. And, indeed, so extravagant are the facts, that, without such a proof, it would appear like an idle dream, that a road had cost the government $13,156 per mile, to construct it, and $2,522 per mile, to repair it in one year, and before that year had expired, had become impassable until it should be made anew. And to ensure its future usefulness, the government must set apart a separate fund, to be drawn upon forever, at the will and pleasure of a superintendent, whose interest it was, to be perpetually making and mending. Yet true as this is, and with all its enormities, it is only a foretaste of what is to come, if we are to pursue this system; and more especially, when the government shall have fully embarked in constructing canals, of which there were as many as thirty in the plans and surveys, now exhibited to the Senate, some of them five hundred miles in length." Without giving undue weight to personal or party considerations, he must know little of man, who is not aware how much local circumstances, how much the associations of time and place act upon our senses, our understanding, and even on our best intentions. The objects that surround us appear to be of greater magnitude and of more importance than those that are afar off. Those that we can inspect and examine, acquire in our feelings a value, an interest, that we can never give to those that approach us only by report. The delegates of Maine, or Missouri, or Georgia, will feel a deep interest in the improvements of their own State; they may acquire even a factitious interest in the projected ameliorations around the seat of government, because these schemes are made to pass under their personal observation and inspection, and they are constantly associating with persons to whom these objects are, or appear to be, of great and immediate and almost exclusive value; but what deep concern will the representatives from Georgia feel in the projected improvements in Maine, or in Missouri, or how will the delegates from those States listen to the propositions for the benefit of Georgia. It is from the operation of this principle that the circumference of the Union has been comparatively neglected, while the central districts have received so many marks of public favour and bounty. Whereas, under a fair and equitable distribution of the fund for internal improvement, each delegation will be sure of receiving for its own State its due allotment, and need only be solicitous to have that portion well applied; each delegation will attend particularly to the expenditure in its own State, and we shall then have the strongest assurance that the whole expenditure will be beneficially directed. One strong and remarkable instance may be cited of the influence which present objects acquire even upon the strongest and most enlightened minds. In the elaborate report made on the 7th December, 1826, on the subject of the Ohio and Chesapeake Canal, so deeply did the corps of Engineers become absorbed in the magnificence and grandeur of the enterprize, that they appear anxious to give effect to every collateral circumstance that might aid its progress, and among the reasons advanced to the government for embarking in the project, the first which is adduced, is the additional value that will be given to the adjacent lands. If the Ohio and Chesapeake Canal was to have been dug by subscription, this argument might have been greatly impressive upon the proprietors of the land, in the districts through which this great work was to pass; but what temptation would an increased value to the lands upon the long line of this canal, offer to the representatives from the distant portions of the Union, to induce them to appropriate on one immense, and at best, uncertain enterprize, all the surplus revenue of the nation for many years.* We mention this, however, only as an exemplification of the undue influence that objects near to us exercise, not only on the vision, but on the understanding. While this project has been pressed upon the public attention by the united exertions of great talents, a lofty public spirit, strong private interests and ardent zeal; while it has been supposed that the commerce of the west, in its mighty efforts to reach the shores of the Atlantic, would ascend the opposing current of the Ohio, perhaps also of the Monongahela, traverse the summits of the Alleghany and the parallel chains of contiguous mountains, expose itself to the delays of three hundred and ninety-eight locks, and the possible, if not probable want of water in the summit levels, rejoicing still in such an access to an Atlantic market; other routes, far more direct and practicable, have been overlooked, because they are situated some degrees farther to the south, and, perhaps, because they would lead this commerce into channels, that those who influence the arrangements of the government, did not wish that it should pursue. Let us take one instance only, as an illustration. From the mouth of the Tennessee river to Florence, just below the Muscle Shoals, where the steam-boat navigation now terminates, the ascending voyage consumes from two to three days. From the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi to the mouth of the Tennessee, scarcely one. From Florence, a rail-road of three hundred and forty miles, without having to encounter any inter *The Board of Engineers have estimated the cost of this work at nearly $22,500,000. It will not be unreasonable in so immense a project, presenting many difficulties, to suppose that the cost will exceed by 10 per cent. the first calculations of the engineers. This will raise the expense to $25,000,000. The subscription of individuals, or of corporate bodies, will scarcely exceed $5,000,000, and $20,000,000 will remain for the United States to furnish. One has been already granted. When two or three more shall have been obtained, a new ground of application will be assumed, and it will be argued that more must be done to save from waste, and, perhaps, total loss, that which has been already expended. Still we have no other objection to this project, visionary as we believe it to be in its leading object, but the undue proportion of our funds which it will require, and the undue influence, which, from its location, it will exercise upon the members of Congress. posing mountains, or cross any formidable streams, will reach Augusta. From Augusta, Savannah is distant one hundred and twenty, Charleston one hundred and forty miles. Thus then, the products of the western country, whether descending the White river or the mighty stream of the Missouri, whether floating along the current of the Mississsippi or its tributary branches, many of them noble rivers, and like the Illinois, flowing through territories of exuberant and inexhaustible fertility; whether descending along the stream of the Ohio itself, or any of its secondary waters, will only have to pause in their descending progress, turn against the current of the Tennessee for two or three days, and then in forty or sixty hours, according to the rate at which carriages shall be made to travel, may be placed in Augusta, on navigable water flowing into the Atlantic, or in another day, on continued rail roads, may be delivered in Charleston or Savannah, in Atlantic ports possessing every advantage that mercantile enterprize may require. Six days, therefore, of uninterrupted travelling may take produce from the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi to the shores of the Atlantic; in five days, a return cargo may be delivered at the same point. It appears to us, that no one position on the Atlantic shore of the United States, offers equal advantages to the commerce of the western country—to that commerce, we mean, which will embrace, and is connected with all the waters of the Mississippi and its branches, to the north of the Arkansa.* We know of no other course in which so few obstacles will interpose, no other on which there will be so short a distance to ascend against a current. The New-York Canal opens a prodigious intercourse with the lakes, and with all the streams which flow into those magnificent basins; it has * From the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi, the distance (calculated from one of Tanner's maps) to different points on the sea-coast, is as follows:To Savannah, Charleston, Richmond, 525 miles 551 596 660 687 780 The route from Florence to Augusta, would pass some distance south of the termination of the Alleghany mountains, and cross the Coosa, Talapoosa, and Chatahouchie, while they are yet near their sources. It would run through a fertile, healthy, and, where not occupied by the Indians, a populous country. All other routes to the Atlantic coast, excepting one further to the south, would cross many ridges of mountains, where roads could only be opened at great expense. In times of peace, this outlet to the western commerce may be considered as comparatively unimportant, the great bulk of it will, undoubtedly, float along its natural and noble channel. But in war, when the mouth of a single river, nay, even the Gulf of Mexico itself, can be easily closed by a naval power, such an access to the Atlantic coast may become of immense value. |