No. 4.] HIGHWAYS. 215 



tions, for the time, languished. It was not until after 

 Jetterson had gone into retirement, and Madison had reached 

 his second administration, that Congress earnestly took up 

 the subject. 



In 1815 the indifference of the national Legislature of 

 1805 and 180G to the subject of good roads had in large 

 degree passed away, but Madison vetoed the act that Con- 

 gress passed. At about this same period the Legislature of 

 Pennsylvania gave $150,000 to aid the building of a turn- 

 pike to Pittsburgh ; Ohio, in recognition of her admission 

 to the Union, gave money to complete the Cumberland road 

 to the one hundred and thirteenth milestone ; and so the era 

 of great national roads seemed at last to be fairly inaugu- 

 rated. 



In 1819, the early part of Monroe's administration, Mr. 

 Calhoun, then secretary of war, made a report on roads 

 and canals with reference to military operations. He urged 

 a generous outlay of the public funds for these purposes, 

 as affording not onl}^ security for military defence and 

 transportation of mails, but also as certain to stimulate 

 commerce and trade between the States ; he urged that their 

 construction would consolidate the Union and greatly in- 

 crease its wealth. His practical suggestion was the employ- 

 ment of the regular troops in time of peace in road building. 

 Congress so far approved that it appropriated $10,000 for 

 increasing the pay of soldiers thus employed ; $500,000 

 were also appropriated toward the further construction of 

 the Cumberland road, — a project which not long after 

 gained the important support of the great commoner, Henry 

 Clay. 



A striking feature of the remarkable progress in so many 

 directions which distinguished the century just closed was 

 the improvement in the condition of its roads. This be- 

 came especially evident in the last half of that period in a 

 number of the States. New Jersey, in particular, made 

 very notable progress in this respect, and certainly our own 

 State of Massachusetts has much to be proud of in what has 

 been accomplished along these lines since the days of the 

 civil war. 



