TRANSPORTATION AND MARKETING 243 



having their rise near the center-line of the State 

 might readily be given canal connections and hence 

 establish additional trans-state waterways. Indeed, 

 the sanguine temperament and exuberant imagina- 

 tion of the youthful governor, reflecting well the 

 temper of his fellow citizens, hardly placed bounds 

 to any conception of internal development that might 

 be brought forward at the moment. The legislature 

 acted promptly. "The subject of internal improve- 

 ment," declared its committee which took the matter 

 under advisement, "is one which is occupying the 

 intelligence of the age." Internal improvement was 

 "the great lever which is opening the sealed-up foun- 

 tains of national wealth and civilization." Michigan 

 seated "by nature in the very lap of wealth and 

 power" should not be laggard in seizing her oppor- 

 tunity. She was not laggard. Under the direction 

 of a State Commission of Internal Improvement, 

 the construction of three railroads was undertaken : 

 the Northern, joining the St. Clair and Grand 

 River; the Central, joining Detroit with the mouth 

 of the St. Joseph River; and the Southern, con- 

 necting Lake Erie with southern Lake Michigan. 

 Private enterprise had already established a rail- 

 road between Maumee Bay and Adrian, which served 

 the needs of passengers and freight in that direction, 

 and had instituted construction on the central line 

 west from Detroit. The Commission on Internal Im- 

 provement eagerly pressed its own projects until 

 financial difficulties forced the cessation of work and 

 finally the sale of the publicly owned railroads that it 



