HIS EXTRA-PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS 91 



that route, and was assured that the enclosure was but a 

 mere earnest of what they would pay for his continued 

 support. "Please to look at this", Maury said; "these 

 people seem to think money the chief object of all 

 endeavor". He returned the check then with a cour- 

 teous note of thanks explaining that he could not admit 

 personal interest into his discussions of measures for the 

 general good of the people. 



Another question of great importance, to which Maury 

 gave his voice and pen for many years, was the financial 

 and maritime interests of the South and West. As 

 early as January, 1839, he wrote an article for the 

 Southern Literary Messenger on "Direct Trade with the 

 South", in which he called upon the people of that 

 section to establish a line of steam packets between 

 Norfolk and Havre. In the year 1845, he wrote for the 

 same magazine his "Letters to Clay", in which he ad- 

 vocated the establishment of a dockyard, a school for 

 apprentices, and a naval academy at Memphis, the con- 

 struction of a canal from the upper Mississippi to the 

 Lakes, the establishment of a naval base at Pensacola 

 as well as at some other point on the Atlantic coast south 

 of Norfolk, and the placing of fortifications at Key West 

 and the Dry Tortugas for the protection of the Gulf. 

 These measures he continued to advocate in season and 

 out of season. 



After Congress passed on June 15, 1844, an act for 

 establishing a naval dockyard and depot at Memphis, 

 Maury concentrated his batteries upon the need for a 

 canal to connect the Mississippi with Lake Michigan 

 through the Illinois River. He claimed that this would 

 be of great benefit to commerce in time of peace, and 

 that, if war with England should come, the United 



