MAY 3, 1832.] Cumberland Road. [H. OF R. of the United States' treasury, is cast upon those who two thousand three hundred and ninety-five dollars and have the advantage of its travel and use, was established sixty-three cents, being an average between thirteen and by the act of Congress of 2d March, 1831, giving the as- fourteen thousand dollars per mile, Every one will be sent of this Government to an act of the General Assem-struck with the magnitude of the sum expended, comparbly of the State of Ohio. But we are now, for the first ed with the object effected-the laying down of a road time, according to my knowledge of the subject, called one hundred and thirtymiles in length-but it will be said upon to repair a road, preparatory to yielding it to State the money was injudiciously disbursed. I agree that it authority. The States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and was so, and go further, by saying it was most wastefully Virginia have severally enacted laws, by which they have squandered, and that this road, and the manner of its conexpressed their readiness to receive the Cumberland road struction and repair, has done more real injury to the within their respective limits; the two former on the con- great cause of internal improvement-great I think it, and dition, however, that it shall be first repaired: It is an consider it as intimately associated with the best interests inquiry of great moment, how it shall be repaired. Re- and future destinies of this empire-than any other cause, garding the legislation of this day as the establishment of or than all other causes combined. The last appropriaa precedent for all future time, it seems to me to present tion for it was made on the lith April, 1820, and amountfor our decision considerations of great national import-ed to one hundred and forty-one thousand dollars, if we ance. Shall large sums be expended in the repair of this except a small appropriation of three thousand four hunroad? Will you put it in the best possible condition? dred and eleven dollars and three cents, made on the 14th Or will you place it on a footing of fair competition with March, 1826, for balances due on the road. It was soon the roads that now belong to the several commonwealths, thought to require the expenditure of more money for into whose hands the amendment proposes that it shall repair, and the following appropriations have been made pass? It would not be unreasonable to suppose that a just for this purpose: regard to those States, and individual efforts which have February 28, 1823, been heretofore successfully exerted in providing useful and highlyvaluable means of communication between prominent points of our country, and a proper consideration of the influence which the acts of this Government may have upon their further prosecution, should determine this House to give an affirmative answer to the last interrogatory. But there is an additional argument of great weight to be drawn from the duty which we all owe to the people, as the guardians of their treasury. Let it be remembered that we are making many public improvementsthat this very Cumberland road is extending itself far into the West, and that although the various sections of it will In this bill there is an appropriation for re March 25, 1826, for repairs in 1825 unau- May 2, 1827, for do. do., $25,000 749 66 510 30,000 66 3, 1829, 100,000 March 2, 1831, for unauthorized repairs 31, 1830, for excess of expenditure beyond appropriation, 15,000 950 172,209 probably, in the end, pass under State control, yet there is no fixed period at which they shall do so. If you establish the principle that you are to transfer them in the best condition of which they are susceptible by the ex-sor of my honorable colleague proposed an amendment penditure of money, what will be the consequence? Will not those States, through whose territories they lead, use them as free roads, until they become almost impassable, and then address the Congress of the United States for an appropriation to place them in their original, or a better than their original, condition, and urge this very act as a justification of their application? The suggestion is fully sustained by the course which has been pursued in regard to the Cumberland road. So long as contributions could be levied on the public treasury to preserve it, no anxiety was felt to require from those who enjoyed the convenience of its use, a suitable return for the facilities it afforded. The most powerful principle of human action, the self-interest of the persons inost concerned in the road, was best gratified by allowing those who chose to do so, to pass over it free of expense, and thus alluring travel from all quarters of the country into thisfavored channelof communication to the Western region. The remarks are true of all improvements of a kindred character. If we extend them, as I trust we shall, a treasury of almost boundless resource will be required to meet repairs alone. I am, Mr. Speaker, in favor of the erection of toll-gates, because, in the first place, I take it to be the true principle, that every road shall sustain itself; and next, because I regard myself as virtually requested by the State of Pennsylvania, in her legislation on this subject, to advocate this measure; and for the same reason I shall vote for the repair of the Cumberland road, provided its cost be restricted within some reasonable limit. The question recurs, how, and to what extent, shall it be repaired? To enable us to determine correctly, I conceive it will be proper to look at what has been heretofore done for it. This road cost originally one million seven hundred and to a bill pending in Committee of the Whole, providing an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars for the repair of the Cumberland road, and, failing in this project, he asked, when the bill came into the House, for fifty thousand dollars for the same object, and here, too, he was unsuccessful, both propositions having been rejected by very large majoritics. And it is to these refusals of Congress that we are indebted for the measure now before us, which is, with those specially interested, more a matter of necessity than choice. I have referred to these appropriations to show with what a liberal spirit this Government has acted towards this extensive and expensive improvement. One hundred and twenty-onethousand sevenhundred and seventy-eight dollars have been expended upon this road within thirty months, and we are called upon to appropriate-how much? No less a sum than threehundred andtwenty-eight thousand nine hundred and eighty-three dollars—an enormous amount, if we look at it in connexion with the object in view. It must strike every honorable gentleman as a most extravagant provision for repair-to mend, as it is said, not to make. But, say the honorable gentlemen who advocate this enormous appropriation-enormous, I repeat, when we consider to what it is to be applied-it is the amount estimated to be necessary by an engineer, competent to judge on the subject; and a letter has been read, dated in April last, from Jonathan Knight, Esq., now employed on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, which states the sum of three hundred and seventy-fourthousanddollars as not too large to McAdamize this road. I have the pleasure of a personal acquaintance with Mr. Knight, who is a most respectable gentleman, but he owes no duty to this Governmentit was not incumbent on him to examine the road particu larly, or to give that minute attention to its condition, or the amount that would be required for its repair on any plan, which would alone enable him to form an opinion that could be depended on for accuracy. He has proba bly the same knowledge on the subject that belongs to every gentleman who occasionally travels on this turnpike. But a report was made by Casper W. Wever, Esq., then superintendent of the United States road, which is relied on as evidence of the propriely of the present application; and it is indeed the document upon which the proposed amendment of my honorable colleague [Mr. MCKENNAN] is based. I willingly bear testimony to the eminent qualification and honorable character of Mr. Wever; I know him well, and esteem him highly. Let us look for a moment at what he says: "It was estimated, in February, 1826, that a thorough repair, upon the McAdam plan, by taking up the stone, of which the coverwas then composed, reducing them to the requisite size, and relaying them to the thickness of nine inches, regraduating such parts as are of and greater than five degrees above a horizontal line, including the repair of the masonry and all contingent expenses, would cost $2,146, 02 5-6 per mile, or, for the whole distance of 130 miles, the sum of $278,983 68. Since that time, the superstratum or cover of reduced stone has worn and washed away to an extent almost incredible, and has shown that too much reliance was placed upon the layer of large stone in that estimate, as there are not so many of them of as good a quality as was then supposed. To effect such a repair now as was then contemplated, would require a considerably larger sum than was then believed to be sufficient, I would say, at least, $50,000. To the above sum of $278,983 68 let $50,000 be added, and it gives the sum of $323,983 68 as the estimated cost, at this time, of such repair as was then contemplated, and exhibits a difference of cost between a repair upon the old and the McAdam plan of $98,709 68 in favor of the former. 46 [MAY 3, 1832. the views and wishes of Pennsylvania, it is only necessary to look to the great stake she has in two rival communications-she has contributed liberally to the construction of and is a very large stockholder in, two turnpike roads leading from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, which must contend with this United States road for business. To suppose, then, that she desired it to be made a bowling green. and thus in effect a free road for the next five or six years. is to believe that the Legislature was either blind to her interests, or wilfully negligent of the great trusts confided to it. Place it on a footing with other channels of commu nication from one section of the country to another, and you will have done all that is required or expected. Ever then it will have immense advantage over all competitors: for being made by means furnished from the common stock, the contributions that will be levied on the travel will be regulated with a view to its preservation and repair alone; whereas State and corporation improvements must not only maintain themselves, but, in addition, yield some suitable return for the large investments which have gone into their construction. What, then, ought such description of repair as I have endeavored to point out as the most suitable and just, to cost? I have been informed by gentlemen around me that the extension of the Cumberland road has been made on the McAdam plan in some parts of Ohio (and this portion of it is said to be the best road, certainly in the United States, perhaps in the world) at an expense not exceeding $6,000 per mile, and, in some instances, for even smaller amounts; judging from this, I should suppose an ordinary turnpike ought not to cost more than $4,000 per mile, and that a less sum than one-fourth this amount should repair it. In this estimate I am borne out by Mr. Wever, the superintendent before referred to, who does not, I think, place it at so much, if repaired on the old plan, or as turnpikes usually are. He divides the road into three classes, thefirst being seventy-five miles and five-eighths of a mile; Notwithstanding this great difference of cost, I would, the second, thirty-two miles and seven-eighths of a mile; most unhesitatingly and decisively, give the preference to and the third,swenty-one miles and four-eighths of a mile the McAdam plan. In doing so, I would be influenced in length, and proceeds: "In the first class is compreby the fact, that when done, the work would be more hended such parts as have upon them, perhaps, on the permanent, and could be kept in good order at a less ex-average, about one-half of the original quantity of small pense, and the graduation would be moderated, which is stone; in the second class are embraced such portions as a most desirable object. If the repair be made upon the are nearly, but not quite destitute of the cover of small old plan, the cover of small stone will grind and wear away stone; and the third class contains such pieces as are enrapidly, because of the stubborn, unyielding, and inflexi- tirely destitute of the cover of broken stone, and such ble solidity of the substratum. There is not, there cannot parts as are not only thus naked, but are in some spots be, in the present substratum, any of that yielding elasti- destitute of the pavement also." city to heavy pressure so essential to the preservation and "By preserving the original work unmolested, that is. durability of artificial roadswhich are covered with metal." permitting the pavement to remain as it is, only repairing The foregoing contemplates not so much the repair as it where its unity is broken, it is believed that the road the making of a road. The ground is, according to the can be put in very good travelling condition, by putting plan submitted, to be regraduated, and the entire road is on the first class a cover of three inches, upon the second to be covered with broken stone to the depth of nine class a cover of four and a half inches, upon the third inches. To repair any thing is to make good its defective class one of six inches in thickness of metal of good quality. parts, and the very idea supposes that the bulk or body reduced to a size not exceeding four ounces in weight. To of the article is so sound and good, as to make it the dic-effect this, it is estimated that the first class, 75 5-8 miles, tate of sober discretion that the renewal of its destroyed or injured parts will be a judicious expenditure of money. Here the proposition is to lay down an entirely new road, on a surface differently graduated, and constructed of different materials differently prepared. If this be not to supply an old road by a new one, if it be not to reconstruct, instead of to repair, I confess I never was more mistaken in my life. When the States of Pennsylvania and Maryland required the road to be put in good repair before they would receive it, they did not ask, or think of asking, that it should be McAdamized; at least, the State that I have the honor in part to represent, I am confident, had no such expectation. The condition was and is, that it shall be put in such order as will enable it to compete on equal grounds with the other passages to the West. To prove the accuracy of this interpretation of will cost $3 75 per pole, or $1,200 per mile, $90,750 55,230 48,160 5.200 For clearing side drains and opening culverts, 12 And we have as the cost of the road, exclusive And we have a total cost of $219.274 $219,274 $10,000 1,000-11,000 $220,274 This report, certainly made in no contracted spirit, puts the expenses of a thorough repair, upon the only reasonable plan, at the sum of $230,274; but it was made, and I beg the special attention of honorable gentlemen to this fact, on the 25th day of May, 1827, since which time there have been expended in the repair of this road $151,778, appropriated at the following dates: 2d March, 1827, 3d March, 1829, 32st May, 1830, 2d March, 1831, In the bill before the House, for work done last summer, [H. OF R. many occasions witnessed the warm and persevering opposition of that gentleman [Mr. CRAWFORD] to every thing connected with the Cumberland road; and why, it might be inquired, does this gentleman, professing to be a decided friend to internal improvements, oppose an appropriation to be expended not only in his own State, but almost in his own neighborhood? He has just voted for $30,000 large appropriations to continue this road through Ohio, 100,000 Indiana, and Illinois, yet to the preservation of the part. 15,000 already completed in his own State he is decidedly op950 posed! He is willing, however, he says, to put up gates, but not to make a "bowling green" of this road; but he 5,828 [Mr. S.] would tell the gentleman that his plan of erecting gates, without adequate repairs, if not a bowling green. $151,778 would make it green in another way; it would expel the Keeping in view the estimate for the superintendent, and travel, and the grass would grow upon it; and what then? the disbursements made since he calculated the measure Why, then, sir, said Mr. S., the trade and travel being of necessary expenditure, it will be seen that a smaller thus forced to seek another route, would necessarily pass sum than I have indicated will be adequate to the proper through the town where his colleague happened forturepair of the road. Thus: nately to reside. But, thanks to the Legislature of the Mr. Wever's estimate, $230,274 State, no gate can be erected on this road until it is first Appropriations since he reported, 151,778 put in a complete state of repair. This is a condition precedent in the law, and must be complied with, as pre$78,496 liminary to the exaction of tolls. A less sum than that reAnd yet the very document which, in connexion with commended by the department would be inadequate to facts, shows that eighty thousand dollars, or less, will be the accomplishment of this purpose. Whether the whole sufficient for the proposed object, is relied upon as sanc- amount, 328,983 dollars, was now appropriated, or a part tioning the application for three hundred and twenty- only, and the balance at the next session, he did not coneight thousand nine hundred and eighty-three dollars. sider material. Perhaps, at this advanced season of the But I shall hear it alleged that the road has been used year, one-half the amount would be as much as could be ju-` while the several sums mentioned have been expended diciously and economically expended; this was, however, upon it, and that that use has occasioned it to be as bad a matter for the House to decide, and he would cheerfully now as it was in 1827, when the report was made. All acquiesce in its decision. experience proves that the fact ought to be the contrary; for turnpikes made on the old plan always improve by judicious repairs, and are smoother and better at the end of ten or twenty years, than when first constructed. I am, said Mr. C., the decided and firm friend of inter-prosecution of a stupendous, and he might truly say exnal improvements; my votes in favor of the provisions of travagant system of internal improvement, (a system to the pending bill, and the appropriations it contains for which, however, he [Mr. S.] had always been decidedly extending the Cumberland road through the Western opposed,) had incurred a debt of nearly eighteen millions States, prove it, if my general and uniform course here in of dollars; yet of this immense sum not a single dollar had support of all measures that I deem to be of a national ever been expended in his portion of the State-his concharacter, and justly entitled to the favorable considera- stituents had to bear their full proportion of the burdens tion of the Government, should have been forgotten; without participating in the benefits of this vast expendibut for a project so wild and extravagant, I cannot and ture-from their own State his constituents had got nowill not vote. I regard nothing with so much dread, or thing but taxation; and when they come here to ask a pitas so productive of unfriendly results to the great, to the tance from the ample resources of this Government to enaextensively and permanently beneficial system of improv-ble them to sustain these heavy and oppressive burdens, ing the country by means of internal communications, as shall they be met by opposition from Pennsylvania? He these ultra propositions. hoped not. More than two-thirds of the whole sum now I have no desire wholly to defeat this amendment, or asked would be expended in Pennsylvania; and shall her I would press upon the consideration of the House the representatives be found opposed to it, and especially his fact that a bill providing for the transfer of this road (or colleague, [Mr. CRAWFORD,] through whose district the of so much of it as is within their limits) to the States of Pennsylvania canal actually passed some forty or fifty Pennsylvania and Maryland, was reported by the honor-miles? How could the gentleman justify his vote just able chairman of the Committee on Internal Improvements, [Mr. MERCER,] on the 1st of February last. I would urge that the consideration of that bill would afford the proper occasion for determining this question, instead of connecting it with so many other measures that honorable gentlemen desire to pass; and that it also calls for the adoption of a new principle, and should stand by its own strength, or fall from its own weakness, and not have the adventitious aid of the numerous props which surround it. Still, sir, I am willing it should be acted upon now; but unless my honorable colleague [Mr. MCKENNAN] will reduce his amendment to something like the sum I have indicated, I hope it will be rejected. Mr. STEWART said, this subject being one of vital importance to his constituents, it would be a culpable dereliction of duty on his part to suffer the remarks just made by his colleague to pass unnoticed. The House had on VeL. VIII.-172 But there was a view of this subject which he thought could not fail to propitiate the favorable disposition of his colleagues towards this object he begged his colleagues to recollect that the State of Pennsylvania, in the given to continue this road through the Western States, and yet oppose the preservation of it in his own? Why expend the public money in the construction of this road, if the parts already finished are suffered to go to destruction? Such a wanton waste of public money as this could neither be justified nor defended. But, my colleague says there has been already an immense expenditure of public money in the repair of this road; in this he was utterly mistaken: no road in the world, he ventured to say, had sustained itself so long, under such a weight of travel, at so little expense. Sir, how long has this road been in use, and what has been expended upon it? The first appropriation was made for its survey and location in 1806, during Mr. Jefferson's administration; its construction commenced in 1811, and most of the road was completed in 1818; so that some part of this road had been in use more than twenty years, and nearly all of it for four. teen years and upwards, under heavy travel; and what had been, during all this period, granted for repairs? $171,000 only; 25,000 in 1823; 30,000 in 1827; and 115,000 in 1828, 1829; a sum inadequate, deducting the cost of superintendence and masonry, to put three inches of broken stone on the entire surface of the road; and yet his colleague had gravely talked of the immense sums expended for the repair of the road. But the gentleman also tells as that this road cost originally $1,702,395, upwards of $13,000 per mile, which he says was a most wasteful squandering of the public money, and that it has done great injury to the cause of internal improvement; a cause which, he admits, is interwoven with the future destinies of the republic. But he carefully avoids stating the facts and circumstances which attended the execution of this work, which entirely disprove the inference of wasteful extravagance. Most of this road, it will be recollected, was constructed in the midst of uninhabited and almost inaccessible mountains, where provisions and supplies had been transported with difficulty, and at great expense, thirty and forty miles. Much of the work was also done during the late war, when labor and supplies of all kinds cost, it is well known, one or two hundred per cent. more than they now do; yet, under all these circumstances, so well calculated to increase the expense of construction, more than threefourths of the whole of this road, extending from Cumberland to Washington, had been actually made and finished for a fraction over nine thousand dollars per mile. The question, however, is not how much has this road cost, but how is it to be preserved? Having failed to procure adequate annual appropriations for its repairs, and seeing that the repairs when made were soon swept away and rendered useless for want of some permanent system of constant and regular superintendence, the States through which the road passes have at length determined, with the assent of Congress, to take it under their own care, and preserve it by a system of moderate tolls; thus relieving this Government from all further trouble with it. The law of Ohio, for this purpose, was sanctioned in this House at the last session, with great unanimity; and gentlemen now say they are disposed to put the road in Pennsylvania and Maryland on an equal footing with that in Ohio: this is all we ask. Let gentlemen put our portion of the road in as good repair as it was in Ohio, and we are content. When the gates were erected there, it was perhaps the best road in the world-new and fresh from the hands of the contractor. Let gentlemen then comply with their promise to put us on an equal footing with Ohio--we ask no more; and this was demanded by every principle of equality and justice. What then is the present condition of this road? and how much will be required to put it in good repair? These were important questions, to which he begged leave for a few moments to call the particular attention of the House. [MAY 3, 1832. persuaded, could find few advocates in that House. True economy required that the repairs should be substantial and permanent; nothing else would answer any valuable purpose, and without this the laws of the States did not authorize the erection of gates; a slight repair, such as was indicated by his colleague, would be a waste of public money. The repairs, to be useful, must be sufficiently strong to sustain the transit of the numerous and heavy wagons which were constantly passing over it. A stratum of less than ten or twelve inches of stone would be of no avail: in the wet weather of winter and spring the wheels would soon pass through a less thickness, and the money would be lost. The gentleman might as well scatter the money itself over the road, as to repair it in the way he had proposed; the one would do as much good as the other. True economy, he repeated, required that whatever was done should be done well. From a letter transmitted to the House by General Macomb, based upon Mr. Wever's estimates, which would be found in a report which he [Mr. S.] had had the honor of making from the Committee on Roads and Canals, in 1825, it appeared that a covering, or stratum, of six inches of stone would require $207,041; of nine inches, $278,983; of twelve inches, $350,926; of fifteen inches, $422,865 and the last thickness, of fifteen inches, was strongly and decidedly recommended by Mr. Wever as preferable, on every principle of public policy and sound economy. The reasoning of Mr. Wever appeared to him conclusive, and there was no man in the nation better qualified to form a sound and enlightened judgment on this subject; and in this view he was fully sustained by the letters from Mr. Knight, now chief engineer on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, who had originally superintended the construction of a considerable portion of the Cumberland road. His colleague [Mr. CRAWFORD] had, however, impeached the estimates of these gentlemen, because he says they have no interest in the road. This, Mr. S. said, to his mind, furnished one of the best reasons in the world for giving them full and implicit confidence, coming, as they did, from competent, and, as the gentleman himself now admits, disinterested judges. Mr. Wever had been employed by the Government, for the express purpose of passing over and inspecting the whole road, and forming a detailed report as to its condition, and the amount required for its preservation and repair; and this report was the result of that examination. [Here Mr. S. quoted largely from the report.] But we are told, said he, this report was made five or six years ago, and since then 150,000 dollars had been expended in repairs. True; but the gentleman makes no allowance for the injury this road, already worn threadbare, has experienced in these five or six years. Old roads, he must recollect, are like old garments; when they begin to go, they are soon destroyed. The chief engineer, in the report sent to this House during the present He held in his hand some twenty letters received from session, says expressly that "the actual condition of the citizens of the highest respectability, residing on and road is represented to be as bad as it was at the date of near this road, giving full and detailed accounts of its pre- Mr. Wever's report, and that, consequently, the full sent condition. He named the writers of these letters, amount estimated by him will be required to give a thomany of whom were known to gentlemen upon that floor. rough repair, on the plan which he suggests." To the From these letters (a number of which he read) it ap- numerous letters and representations already read, as to peared that the road was in a most ruinous condition, its the state of the road, we have superadded strong confiroriginal foundations entirely broken up, and thus render-mation, in the annual report of the Secretary of War. ed in many places utterly impassable. During the late (which he also referred to, and quoted at considerable winter and spring, it appeared that the mail stages, and length.) Surely, the mere conjectures and suppositions travellers generally, had frequently to quit the road, and of gentlemen who knew nothing about the road, can make their way through fields and forests. The mail have no weight with the House, against such strong and stage, drawn by six horses, had frequently stuck fast in conclusive evidence. It being fully shown, then, that the the road, till additional force was obtained to relieve it. road is in a ruinous condition, the necessity of its repair Such, in fact, was the condition of this road, on which must be admitted by all; for surely no one would advocate some gentlemen seemed disposed to erect gates and exact the abandonment of this great national bond of union, tolls after a slight repair. Such a policy as this, he felt connecting the East and West, made at an expense of mil lions, to destruction. It would be virtually to establish a non-intercourse between the East and the West, and to render the further construction of this road a wasteful and prodigal expenditure of public money. What shall be the plan of repair? This was the next question. There were but two plans-annual appropriations, or gates. The first had been found to be too uncertain and precarious; the erection of gates, under the authority of this Government, had been attempted; but this had also failed. The only plan left was the one now presented to the House, which had already been adopted successfully in Ohio; adopted, too, by the almost unanimous vote of the whole Southern delegation. The same plan it is now proposed to extend to Pennsylvania and Maryland, and he saw no reason why it should not be there also adopted, with equal unanimity. vene. Of the importance of this road he need not speak. The uniform support it had received by every administration, and by every Congress, for more than a quarter of a century, afforded abundant and conclusive evidence of the estimation in which it had been held by this Government. But we are asked why the road is not repaired by those residing upon it. The answer is obvious; because the road belongs to this Government, and not to the local authorities, and because it passes, for the most part, through a mountainous, uninhabited region, where repairs by the people are impossible. He begged gentlemen to recollect, too, that the importance of preserving this road would be greatly enhanced by the completion of the canal or railroad to Cumberland. from whence it would then constitute the grand connecting link between the Atlantic and Western waters, whilst those works were winding their way to the West, over the lofty mountains that interA few years since, and the construction of this road was regarded as even more visionary than is now the construction of this canal: an object for which he had long labored, and to which he had long looked with intense interest, and the final accomplishment of which he had never, for a moment, doubted. The prospect brightened as the work progressed, and he hoped soon to see the great end achieved by the united energies of the two powerful and patriotic companies by which these splendid and magnificent enterprises had, at length, been conducted to the point of union. The resources of this Government are now abundant, and the necessary aid would, no doubt, be promptly afforded, when required. The immediate connexion of this road with these great objects, he repeated, added greatly to the importance of its preservation and repair. If no appropriation be made at this session, the road will become impassable. This was clear, beyond dispute. The mails for the supply of seven or eight Western States, the travel by stages which now cover the road, and the general trade and intercourse upon it, if not entirely cut off, will, at least, be seriously interrupted. The importance of this road would be apparent, if gentlemen would, but for a moment, advert to the fact that, but a few years since, before this road was constructed, the great Western mail was carried on horseback, once a week, requiring eight or nine days to reach Wheeling, where it is now carried over this road, bad as it is, daily, in stages, a distance of two hundred and seventy miles, in fifty-one hours. A stage had never crossed the mountains, from Cumberland to the West, before the year 1818. The transportation of merchandise to the West, which now costs two dollars per hundred, formerly cost ten or twelve; and the transportation of the flour, tobacco, hemp, glass, and other manufactured and agricultural products, which are now daily moving to the Eastern markets on this road, was then unknown; and it would soon be so again, if this road was not speedily repaired. Much had been said as to the manner in which the repairs should be made. Some advocated the McAdam plan, while others preferred the addition of stone, without disturbing [H. OF R. the old foundation. This question cannot be settled here; it must be left to the sound discretion of the department, and the superintendent who may be appointed by the President, under this law. For his own part, he was of the opinion that the same plan ought not to be adopted throughout the whole extent of the road. This would depend on circumstances. Where good material, limestone for instance, could be obtained, and, in other places, where the old bed had been cut through, he would take it up, and rebuild it from the foundation; but in other places, where good stone could not be procured, which was often the case in the mountains, hewould level down the protuberances, and place an adequate thickness of broken stone on the old bed, and then erect the gates pari passu with the progress of the repairs. Such would be the plan that he would recommend. The solicitude, Mr. S. said, which he felt for the fate of this proposition, had led him to commit a much greater trespass on the time and attention of the House than he had intended. The deep interest of his constituents in this question must furnish his apology. He had, at one time, doubted the policy of connecting this measure (a measure of such urgent necessity, and obvious propriety) with any other subject; but from the advanced period of the session, and the importance of other subjects which were now pressing themselves on the attention of the House, he felt satisfied that all the friends of the road should now unite in the efforts to introduce it into this bill; and, if united, he was confident the effort could not be unsuccessful. He, therefore, in conclusion, appealed to gentlemen from the West, interested in the extension of this great thoroughfare, to aid in the preservation of this essential link in the chain of communication, without which its original design would be defeated, and its further prosecution seriously embarrassed. Its enemieswould point to the ruins of this road as evidence of the folly of constructing public works, which we want either the power or the disposition to preserve. To gentlemen from the South, who had voted with great unanimity, at the last session, for the adoption of this system, in Ohio, he appealed, to maintain their consistency. This proposition involved no constitutional question; it assumed no doubtful jurisdiction; it provided for the construction of no new work of internal improvement, but merely for the preservation of a road already constructed. at vast expense, and of great and acknowledged public utility. To the delegation from Pennsylvania, he appealed, with confidence, to grant this pittance, from a common andoverflowing treasury, to sustain the people of a portion of their own State, who were borne down by the burdens, while they enjoyed none of the benefits, of the millions annually expended in more favored portions of that commonwealth. He called on Maryland to support this measure, and prevent the establishment of a non-intercourse between their great metropolis (Baltimore) and the Western States. And, finally, he appealed to the whole House to aid in the adoption of this measure, and thereby relieve itself and this Government from all future trouble with this subject, and preserve and perpetuate this proud monument of national munificence, this powerful bond of national union. Mr. DODDRIDGE said it was a well known fact that Mr. Jefferson first conceived and first proposed the plan of constructing one or more roads from the navigable rivers of the Atlantic to the Northwestern Territory, and at least one road through that territory from the riverOhio to the river Mississippi. At that time, the Northwestern Territory included the whole country within those rivers, and the territorial line through the lakes and their outlets to the western boundary of Pennsylvania. The rights of the United States over those rivers were only ripariant, Virginia holding the rights of domain and jurisdiction over the Ohio, and Spain over the Mississippi. |