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Jtllusiraiwn of t/ie report of the Board of Internal Improvement: bif J. 
L. Sullivan. 
To Major General Alexander Macomb, 
Chief Engineer, Department of War. 
Sir: The Board of Internal Improvement, in tlieir letter, at thi& 
time, report on tlic;7rftc^icrt6«7i/i/ of communications by canal between the 
tide waters of tlic Potomac and the head of steam boat navigation on 
the Ohio; between the Ohio and Lake Erie; between the Ohio and the 
Schuylkill: between the Delaware and the Rariton; between Buz- 
zard's and Barnstable Bays; and between Narragansett bay and 
Boston harbor, and intimate their intention to submit their respective 
viens of the means of accomplishing those objects, I have the honor 
to submit, therefore, tlie following illustrations of the practicability 
of these works. 
1st. To elucidate and explain the grounds of the opinion which, as 
a member of the Board, I have expressed, that it is practicable to 
make a canal communication between the tide waters of the Potomac 
and tlie Oliio, it will be necessai'y to have recourse to a few facts 
founded on the experience of other countries, and in climates most like 
our ov.il, and to apply the discoveries of experimental philosophy in 
Europe to a scene of operation under somewhat different circumstan- 
ces, yet. in this incipient stage of the investigation, in a degree hypo- 
thet"cally. 
A caital may be primarily practicable in difficult ground, yet not 
•flTectual to its object. It may be constructed in the usual manner, 
without aecuriiis; the convenience of a continuity of passage. And as 
a canal fails of its purpose, imless it affords an expeditious, sure, and 
cheap route, wSiaievcr its elevation of- ground, or its length of way, 
the question is not only whether the woi'k can be done, but whether, 
in operation, it will be such as the country requires for its accommo- 
dation. Our country generally, and, in particular, this elevated part 
of it, demands a style of civil engineering adapted to the climate and 
the extraordinary rougliness of the ground — a bolder method than has 
heretofore been usual in the more level communications of Europe, 
where the surrounding ocean, or the melting Alps, afford a more re- 
gular supply of water. Indeed, the prevailing character of the Ame- 
rican people, remarkable for activity and energy in travel and busi- 
ness, demands correspondent plans in our canal communications. A 
glance over the whole ground at this time, in anticipation of the period 
when the whole plan would have naturally come forward in a mature 
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