production and consumption. 39 
To improve tlie Mississippi river below Cairo. $10,000,000 
Same above Cairo. 20,000,000 
Canal at mouth of that river... 15,000,000 
Improvement of Ohio river. 25,000,000 
Improvement of James river and Ivawana canal. 50,000,000 
Improvement of Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. 20,000,000 
Construction of a canal from Mississippi river over the moun¬ 
tains of Georgia. 35,000,000 
Improvement of the Red, White, Arkansas and Ouchita rivers.. 25,000,000 
Louisville and Portland canal... 2,500, 000 
Total. $202,500,000 
Now, even admitting all this to be necessary, and proper im¬ 
provement to make, still it must be apparent that as the govern¬ 
ment cannot undertake all at once, it should first complete the 
cheapest and most important route, which without a question is 
the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, at an expense 
of about $4,000,000. And, besides (which is the best side of the 
argument), the government has already got this work on its hands, 
by force of statute law, while the other works are as yet in the 
cocoon of propositions. 
The project of connecting the great lakes with the Mississippi 
is not a new one. As per papers read at the Canal Convention 
at Prairie du Chien, in 1870, it was shown that the late Jesse 
Haiwley, of Canandaigua, N. Y., wrote sundry articles, which 
were published in that place, urging the construction of the Erie 
canal, and at the same time the improvement of the Fox and Wis¬ 
consin rivers, as but a link in the chain of water communication 
from the Hudson to the Mississippi. According to Hoosic/s life 
of De Witt Clinton, that statesman acknowledged that the first 
he heard of the project was by these papers, thus fixing the date 
of the agitation of this subject about 1811. In 1838 it was rec¬ 
ommended to Congress, by Joel R. Poinset, Secretary of War, 
and in 1833 he caused a preliminary survey to be made by Col. 
Cram, of the Topographical engineers. In 1846, 54 and ’55, 
Congress donated lands to aid the improvement. The Commer¬ 
cial Conventions held in Chicago in 1863, and in Dubuque in 
1866, St. Louis in 1867, and Keokuk in 1869, all declared in 
favor of this improvement, and the legislatures of this state have 
studiously, for years, petitioned Congress to complete the great 
work. The governors of the states of New York, Missouri, Wis¬ 
consin, Iowa and Minnesota, have urged it in their messages. I 
