742 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 12 



fact, for the undertaking is necessary to the recip- 

 rocal exchange of the productions of the states pen- 

 etrated by its extremities, in which respect it would 

 be similar to the Philadelphia and Pittsburg route, 

 which, in a part of its course, passes over unin- 

 habited mountains, and still facilitates an immense 

 trade between the east and west. 



Thus it is not necessary that the whole line of 

 an artificial way should lie through a cultivated 

 and populous country, nor need we look to the in- 

 habitants along this or any other projected rail road 

 or canal, for the means of its construction. These 

 will be furnished by the capitalists of any and every 

 part of the country, or even by those of Europe, 

 the moment the enterprize is authorized by the 

 states through which it is to be carried on, and the 

 probabilities of a profitable investment are render- 

 ed manifest. In the opinion of your committee, 

 the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Caro- 

 linas, might, in their sovereign capacity, execute 

 this work, and make it a rich and lasting source 

 of revenue; and, they have as little doubt, that 

 the incorporated joint stock companies would at 

 once be able to command the requisite capital. 



Your committee are of opinion, that the strong- 

 est motives exist for the immediate execution of 

 this great work. At least half the people of the 

 union, comprehending, in whole or in part, in 

 East Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North 

 Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee,Ohio, 

 Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, are in- 

 terested in its completion, as they would instantly 

 participate in its advantages; and, as your commit- 

 tee believe, need only to investigate the subject, to 

 be at once aroused to efficient action. 



Would it pass, like the New York canal, or the 

 projected rail road from Augusta, in Georgia, to 

 Memphis, in Tennessee, nearly from east to 

 west, and consequently combine regions which 

 have similar climates, and identical productions, 

 its value would be far less. But, as we have seen, 

 stretching boldly from north to south, and, with 

 the present and future public works of the states 

 between the Ohio river and the lakes, establish- 

 ing a high road of communication through nearly 

 all the climates and varieties of soil, productions, 

 and people of the United States, it would forever 



Some of your committee, indeed, incline to the 

 belief, that the same channel would, at no distant 

 time, become an inlet for many of the productions 

 and manufactures of foreign countries; for com- 

 merce, as far as possible, should be based upon a 

 direct exchange of productions and commodities. 

 Thus the shipping merchants of Charleston and 

 Savannah, might barter their cotton in Europe for 

 manufactures required by the people of the states 

 in the Valley of the Ohio, and exchange the same 

 for their sustenance; the whole operation, both con- 

 tinental and marine, being performed without the 

 instrumentality of any other money than that em- 

 ployed in defraying the expenses of transporta- 

 tion. 



Of the amount of the business that would, at 

 length, be conducted on this national high-way, 

 the committee scarcely dare to speak. To them 

 it appears of a magnitude, which they fear the 

 meeting and the community at the present time 

 would reo-ard as extravagant and incredible. By 

 the existing population of the portions of country, 

 even now connected with the work, there would 

 be a great amount of travelling and transporta- 

 tion; but the extent to which it would augment 

 the population of the zone of country through 

 which it. would pass; the impulse to agriculture it 

 would impart; the manufacturing establish- 

 ments it would set up, and the lateral turnpikes, 

 rail roads and canals it would suggest, to new dis- 

 tricts of country, from the western slopes of the 

 Alleghany Mountains to the banks of the Missis- 

 sippi, from the sea to the lakes, would make it the 

 parent of a great system of central internal im- 

 provement, and enable it to augment the amount 

 of its articles of transportation to an indefinite de- 

 gree. These immense pecuniary benefits, accru- 

 ing to millions of people, should, of themselves, 

 prompt those who are interested to an immediate 

 attention to the work; but there arc other and no- 

 bler considerations, which should not be overlook- 

 ed. 



No public work could contribute more power- 

 fully to our national defence. Establishing a di- 

 rect and rapid communication, between the north- 

 ern and southern frontiers of the United States, 

 separated, unlike the eastern and western, from the 



stand alone and conspicuous among the public dominions of foreign nations by narrow sheets of 

 works of the union, both in the kind and amount water only, it would afford facilities for the traps- 



of commercial and social intercourse which it 

 would promote. 



The sustenance and manufactures of the corn 

 states, from Kentucky to Michigan, would in- 

 stantly pass along it to the southern consumer, of 

 the region from Cape Florida to the Chesapeake 

 Bay, avoiding all the delays, commissions, 

 dangers of the river, and dangers and dam- 

 ages of a tropical sea voyage which belong 

 to the Mississippi and Gulf route; and even 

 much of the produce that might be designed for 

 coasting or foreign exportation, would reach the 

 sea-ports of South Carolina and Georgia, by the 

 same channel, instead of going to New Orleans 

 or New York. On the other hand, the tropical 

 productions of the north east of Cuba, and of 

 East Florida — their spices, sugar, oranges, le- 

 mons, and figs; — and the indigo, rice and cotton 

 of Georgia and Carolina would, by the same di- 

 rect route, penetrate, in a few days, the interior of 

 the continent, and spread among the consumers, 

 even to the shores of Lake Superior. 



portation of troops, munitions of war, and milita- 

 ry sustenance, from the centre to the borders, or 

 even from one frontier to the other, with unexam- 

 pled rapidity; thus favoring a concentration, requi- 

 site to national defence in the time of war, which 

 could not otherwise be effect ed; and which would 

 present a new triumph of civilization over barba- 

 rism, by making civil public works, an efficient 

 substitute for standing armies and powerful navies, 

 which exhaust the resources and endanger the 

 liberties of a nation. 



But the most interesting and affecting conse- 

 quence that would flow from the execution of this 

 enterprize, would be the social and political. 



What is now the amount of personal inter- 

 course between the millions of American fellow 

 citizens of North Carolina, South Carolina, and 

 Georgia, on the one hand, and Kentucky, Ohio, 

 Indiana, and Illinois, on the other? Do they not 

 live and die in ignorance of each other; and, per- 

 haps, with wrong opinions and prejudices, which 

 the intercourse of a few years would annihilate 



