6 Inland Navigation of the 



value and importance. The several local legislatures have, in 

 various ways, aided and encouraged the investigation or actual 

 construction of canals ; but in none except Ohio has the bold 

 and successful policy of the state of New York, by which its 

 whole strength was applied to the purpose, been fully imitated. 

 The federal government' was applied to at an early period, to 

 contribute its aid to internal improvement, by a grant of pubUc 

 land to the several States, in proportion to the extent and im- 

 portance of the works of internal improvement they might 

 execute. This failed at the moment, and a constitutional ques- 

 tion has since arisen, as to the powers of the general govern- 

 ment in this respect, which bids fair to become the dividing line 

 of powerful opposing parties. 



The inhabited parts of the United Slates may be consi- 

 dered as divided into two great portions, the sea-coast, and the 

 western country. Hence, the internal communications may be 

 naturally arranged into three great classes : those which tend 

 to form a line of communication parallel to the coast ; those 

 which connect the AVestern States to the sea-board ; and those 

 more partial in their objects and limited in their influence. 



The coast of the United States presents a variously indented 

 outline, pierced in several places by great arms of the sea, of 

 which the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, and Long Island 

 Sound, are the most remarkable. Their very situation and 

 direction appear calculated to elicit the inquiry, whether it 

 would not be possible to connect them, and thus to substitute an 

 internal communication safe from the violence of storms, and 

 easily defended from an enemy, for the more tedious and dan- 

 gerous passage by sea ? This great line of navigation has, con- 

 sequently, engaged the attention not only of local governments, 

 but of the general administration. Little has, however, been 

 actually effected. We shall proceed to point out the several 

 parts belonging to this system, and mention the condition in 

 which they respectively stand. 



The most northern canal intended to facilitate a communi- 

 cation parallel to the coast, is one from Massachusetts to Buz- 

 zard's Bay. This has been carefully examined, within the 

 last year, by a board of military engineers, and reported to be 



