202 A. L. Bishop — The State Works of Pennsylvania. 



the direct interests of their constituency.* The following extract 

 from a contemporary writer,! who observed the change of policy 

 we have spoken of, sheds light upon the situation : — 



"When provision was to be made for the further extension of 

 the canal from the mouths of the Juniata and the Kiskeminetas, the 

 Juniata route being. found the shortest and most eligible, public 

 attention was dii-ected to it. To establish this route and provide for 

 its execution was the great object for which the friends of internal 

 improvement in the east and west had to contend. Those who were 

 opposed to the entire project as premature, hazardous, extravagant, 

 and partial, conceived that to successfully resist the adoption of this 

 most popular route was the defeat or the delay of the whole, and, 

 accordingly, directed their united force to oppose the passage of a 

 law in favor of the Juniata route. The strength of the opposition, 

 with the aid of those dissatisfied on the other explored routes, pre- 

 sented a vote that could not be overcome by the friends of the 

 Juniata route. To break and divide the vote of the opposition 

 became the object of the friends of a canal, and it would seem that 

 at once the legislative hall became a market-place, wherein canals 

 were to be bartered for a few years. A few members were to be con- 

 ciliated and brought into the measure by appropriations to their 

 district of country, and by such management or 'log-rolling,' as it 

 is called, millions of dollars were disposed of in projects not then 

 required for public accommodation, and the Commonwealth, in 

 place of one canal, was, by the log-rolling, rolled into three or more, 

 at an expense we think, now (1829) alarming to many of those 

 friends who in their zeal were carried along with the general 

 current." 



Another writer, in commenting upon the legislative provisions 

 made, from time to time, for commencing works contrary to every 

 dictate of sound policy, summarized the case as follows: — 



"This course was the more imperative because there was a minor- 

 ity, respectable in point of zeal and numbers, and formidable by 

 talents, who were "hostile to the measures in toto, either from nar- 



* "Your committee regard the plan of the original improvement system of 

 the state as founded in wisdom; and the only subject of regret is that its 

 friends, from time to time, in the legislative councils of the state have been 

 obliged to vote for other purposes, and for local canals and railways till it 

 has become involved in a heavy and oppressive debt. This fact cannot be 

 explained away or denied." — From proceedings of an Improvement Conven- 

 tion of delegates from Lu/.erne, Susquehanna and Bradford counties held at 

 Tunkhannock, May 5th, 18-10. 



f Inland Navigation and Internal Improvements as now prosecuted in 

 Pennsylvania (1829), by a freeholder of Franklin county, p. 4. 



