ig°5] HAUPT— EMANCIPATION OF THE WATERWAYS. 49 



each they have been rejected as unworthy of improvement because 

 of the absence of sufficient local commerce, caused by the existing 

 bars which it is desired to remove. The interior coastwise canals 

 have been recommended for about a century, but as yet only a 

 few links have been built and those mainly by private and State 

 aid. Massachusetts, has authorized private companies to open a 

 canal across Cape Cod ; New Jersey, across its girdle ; Delaware 

 and Maryland through their peninsula ; Virginia from the Chesa- 

 peake to Albemarle Sound ; South Carolina from the Santee to 

 the Cooper rivers twenty-two miles, opened in 1802 ; and many 

 others. The State of Illinois has authorized the levying of a 

 special tax which has been expended in cutting the Chicago Drain- 

 age Canal through the Sag to the Illinois river. Thus past history 

 and present experience point conclusively to the greater efficiency 

 of the policy of constructing local works under local legislation and 

 and supervision rather than to attempt to legislate for the entire 

 country, by general appropriations made in Congress where so many 

 other matters of a political nature consume time and prevent action, 

 or where sectional jealousies have operated to restrain important 

 measures. Even at this date there are said to be works recom- 

 mended for approval aggregating nearly $500,000,000, in rivers 

 and harbors alone, to meet immediate demands, yet it is extremely 

 difficult to pass a bill for even the most urgent improvements. So 

 that it has recently been deemed necessary to authorize private 

 parties, corporations or municipalities to make their own improve- 

 ments at their own cost subject to the approval of the plans by the 

 Government, but without authority to charge tolls, or to collect 

 revenues. As this is not a practical, commercial proposition, it 

 has been further amended, in the last act, by giving authority in 

 several special instances to private individuals to open channels and 

 charge tolls, the Government reserving the right to recover control 

 after a period of years. 



Thus the pressure for commercial channels which it is beyond 

 the power of the general Government to furnish in a reasonable 

 time, is leading back to the original policy of local control and de- 

 velopment of the lines of least resistance for our internal commerce 

 which has done so much to open up the country prior to the de- 

 struction of our merchant marine in 1867 when it was the pride of 

 the nation, and mistress of the seas. 



