282 HISTORY OF OHIO. 



and canals are scarcely sufficient for the people, whose busi- 

 ness must be done on these great highways of the nation. 



We have said nothing of our vastly increased amount of 

 "agricultural products at that time, which will pass along these 

 highways to a market; nor of the increased wants of the east- 

 ern people for the prime necessaries of life, as their soil wears 

 out, and fails to produce food enough for those who live on that 

 sterile, narrow strip of land, called the old thirteen states. 

 Their food must eventually come from this western country, 

 or from Europe ; probably from both, within a very few years to 

 come. Our board of canal commissioners should elevate their 

 views as they look through the vista of futurity, and project 

 all our public highways for fifty years' growth of the West. 



Should a war come with England again, these highways 

 would save millions of dollars to the nation. 



Should a war happen between this nation and England six 

 years hence, forty thousand volunteers could easily be raised 

 in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. After the troops from Ken- 

 tucky had reached the Ohio river, at the proper points, they 

 and all their munitions of war, could be carried to lake Erie 

 in five days. All their provisions, horses and cannon would be 

 conveyed along these highways, free of toll. In this view 

 our improvements are invaluable, not only to us, but to the 

 whole nation. But no future Proctor will ever land on the 

 soil of this state, and no army of ours will ever again suffer 

 for food, for raiment, or ammunition, on the soil of Ohio. 



Should the south be invaded, our four hundred steamers 

 in the West, would soon convey an overwhelming force to 

 meet, and either conquer, or drive the enemy into the sea. 

 The days of our infancy in the West are passed away, and 

 gone forever. Our youth is ripening into manhood, when the 

 West will be the seat of an empire, such as the world does not 

 contain now, either in numbers, wealth or power. The re- 

 verse of our now situation in Ohio, must one day, be our lot . 

 Now when New Hampshire, New Jersey, South Carolina and 

 Georgia, have four secretaries at Washington, ahd we, twt> tH- 

 ferior clerks! 



