31 



his liaiulr*, he in aft'ectecl preciselj as if his land had become more productive ; 

 therefore his real estate rises in value. 



The importance of this last item of advantage may be illustrated by a single 

 case. The Erie canal cost originally $10,000,000, A rise of two dollars per 

 acre, throughout a border of both banks of the canal, thirteen miles wide, would 

 cover the whole cost of construction ! — and whei'e is the acre of feasible land 

 within those limits, which is not worth, to-day, five, ten, fifteen, perhaps twenty 

 dollars more, than if the work were undone ? 



Perhaps you will say, if this be so, the farmers of New York could have 

 afforded to constmct the canal themselves. — And so they might. But had they 

 the needful information ? Had they the unanimity, the confidence, the courage, 

 the capital, or the credit to command the capital ? Could any voluntary company 

 have been formed, with the adequate courage, and capital and credit, to grapple 

 successfully with the gigantic difficulties of the work ? 



No, Gentlemen, — had not the energies — the capital — and the credit of the 

 State, been enlisted and conseci-ated, in trembling hope, to the accomplishment 

 of the then unparalleled enterprise, it would have remained probably unattempted, 

 certainly unaccomplished, down to the present day. 



And it was the genius of Clinton, that inspired this trembling hope — that 

 nursed it into firm resolve — that bore aloft that firm resolve, high above the 

 opposition of the trading politician, the scofi" of the blasphemer, and the ridicule 

 of the sceptic, to a magnificent and triumphant completion. While thus engraving 

 his own memorial, in a long line of gloiy, on the soil of his native state, he was 

 making his )nark on the age. The power of his great example was felt thi-ough- 

 out the length and breadth of the land. The din of improvement, in its progress, 

 has been extending from State to State, awakening Agriculture to a new life and 

 a new thrift, till there is scarce a hiU top in our country, whose horizon does not 

 bear some testimony to the beneficence of the far reaching policy of Clinton, and 

 whose weary industry has not been cheered and refreshed by the shadow of his 

 great name." 



But who will say that the Erie and Champlain canals were more important to 

 the trade of New York and the great basin of the St. Lawi-ence in 1816, than 

 the Milwaukee & Mississippi, and the Rock River Railroads are, at this moment, 

 to the trade of Wisconsin, and of the vallies of the Upper Mississippi, the Upper 

 Missouri, and the Red River of the North. 



And who will say that what was wisdom in New York then, would be folly 

 in Wisconsin now ? Where, then, is the Clinton of Wisconsin ? And do the bar- 

 riers of your constitution send back a cheerless echo to the voice of your inquiry ? 



Farmers of Wisconsin! you cannot afford to let these gi'eat entei-prises 

 languish and die. If private credit cannot seasonably build the roads, public 



