336 [Assembly 



to foreign trade, or to internal commerce among the states. But this 

 question will be one of diminished niagnilude hereafter, as the en- 

 terprise and capital of our people have at last attained such a giant 

 growth, that where a prospect of remuneration exists, whether with 

 or without public aid, mountains will be tunnelled or cloven down, 

 vallies filled, rivers bridged, sand-bars removed, and harbours exca- 

 ' vated. Already have the iron rail and steam-horse pierced through the 

 spurs of the White Hills — though sustained only by private means — 

 overcome in like manner, the ridges of the Green Mountains, and are 

 fast approaching, nothing daunted, the Alleghanies — and seek a pas- 

 sage through the gorges of the Rocky Mountains, even to the Pacific 

 without fear or faint-heartedness, if but backed by grants of public 

 domain, which thus applied, under proper guards, are certainly in the 

 end, most likely to enrich the donor most. Our length of railroads, 

 already opened, exceed 6,500 miles, or those of Great Britain by 

 more than half of all hersj andsliould one be extended from the Father 

 of Waters to the mouth of the Columbia river, it will, at its gr£at 

 d6p6t on the Mississippi, as some have computed, be not over two 

 and a half days travel from any of our large cities, and not over 

 twenty-five from any such city on the globe ; thus promising to be- 

 come the great thoroughfare for much of the commerce of Asia to 

 both Europe and America. 



But as this whole country cannot possess railroads to every farm- 

 house and work-shop, the common highway must be made oftener to 

 succeed the bridle path — the turnpike the highway — and, on moist 

 soils, the plank road the turnpike — the ferry the ford — tlie bridge the 

 ferry, — the light and scientific bridge, the clumsy logs of old — in or- 

 der to improve more the commercial intercourse among towns and 

 counties, even in the newest regions. Till these are accomplished, 

 we should no more remit exertion than we have to carry a bushel of 

 meal on a horse better than with a stone in one end of the bag, to 

 balance it in the other, or to use the draft of oxen by their shoulders 

 rather than their horns or tail. 



Science is daily pouring over commerce, no less than manufactures, 

 and agriculture, more of the blessing from its beneficent discoveries, 

 and cannot but increase further the safety and size of it on the ocean, 



