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The coals in such situations may be

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estimated at 12 cents a bushel, or At each engine and inclined plane, there ......... must be five men, total 40, at $1 each.

For this sum they would pass 500 tons in one day, over

the eight inclined planes which for each ton is only}

Suppose the mountain to be twenty miles wide, boating for each ton would cost

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a ton, for passing over the mountain, which will be more or less, according to circumstances,

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these calculations being only intended to remove any doubts which may arise on the practicability of passing our mountains.

Having thus, in some degree, considered the advantages which canals will produce in point of wealth to individuals, and the nation, I will now consider their importance to the Union, and their political consequences.

First, their effect on raising the value of the public lands, and thereby augmenting the revenue.

In all cases where canals shall pass through the lands of the United States, and open a cheap communication to a good market, such lands will rise in value for 20 miles on each side of the canal. The farmer who will reside 20 miles from the canal can, in one day, carry a load of produce to its borders; and were the lands 600 miles from one of our sea-port towns, his barrel of flour, in weight 200 pounds, could be carried that distance for 60 cents, the price which is now paid to carry a barrel 50 miles on the Lancaster turnpike. Consequently, as relates to cheapness of carriage, and easy access to market, the new lands, which lie 600 miles from the seaports, would be of equal value with lands of equal fertility, which are 50 miles from the seaports. But, not to insist on their being of so great a value, until population is as great, it is evident that they must rise in value, in a three or four-fold degree; every

lineal mile of canal would accommodate 25,600 acres; the lands sold by the United States, in 1806, averaged about two dollars an acre, and certainly every acre accommodated with a canal would produce $6; thus, only 20 miles of canal, each year, running through national lands, would raise the value of 512,000 acres of land, at least $4 an acre, giving two million and forty-three dollars to the treasury, -a sum sufficient to make 136 miles of canal. Had an individual such a property, and funds to construct canals to its centre, he certainly would do it for his own interest. The nation has the property. And the nation possesses ample funds for such undertakings.

Second. On their effect in cementing the Union, and extending the principles of confederated republican government, numerous have been the speculations on the duration. of our union, and intrigues have been practised to sever the western from the eastern states. The opinion endeavored to be inculcated was, that the inhabitants behind the mountains were cut off from the market of the Atlantic states; that, consequently, they had a separate interest, and should use their resources to open a communication to a market of their own; that, remote from the seat of government, they could not enjoy their portion of advantages arising from the union, and that, sooner or later, they must separate and govern for themselves.

Others, by drawing their examples from European governments, and the Monarchies which have grown out of the feudal habits of nations of warriors, whose minds were bent to the absolute power of the few, and the servile obedience of the many, have conceived these states of too great an extent to continue united under a republican form of government, and that the time is not distant when they will divide into little kingdoms, retrograding from common sense to ignorance, adopting all the follies and barbarities which are every day practised in the kingdoms and petty

states of Europe. But those who have reasoned in this way have not reflected, that men are the creatures of habit, and that their habits as well as their interests may be so combined, as to make it impossible to separate them without falling back into a state of barbarism. Although in ancient times some specks of civilization have been effaced by hordes of uncultivated men, yet, it is remarkable that since the invention of printing, and general diffusion of knowledge, no nation has retrograded in science or improvements; nor is it reasonable to suppose that the Americans, who have as much if not more information in general than any other people, will ever abandon an advantage which they have once gained. England, which at one time was seven petty kingdoms, has, by habit, long been united into one. Scotland, by succession, became united to England, and is now bound to her by habit, by turnpike-roads, canals, and reciprocal interests. In like manner all the counties of England, or departments of France, are bound to each other; and when the United States shall be bound together by canals, by cheap and easy access to markets in all directions, by a sense of mutual interest arising from mutual intercourse and mingled commerce, it will be no more possible to split them into independent and separate governments, each lining its frontiers with fortifications and troops, to shackle their own exports and imports to and from the neighboring states, than it is now possible for the government of England to divide and form again into seven kingdoms.

But it is necessary to bind the states together by the people's interest, one of which is to enable every man to sell the produce of his labor at the best market, and purchase at the cheapest. This accords with the idea of Hume, "that the government of a wise people would be little more than a system of civil police; for the best inte

rest of man is industry, and a free exchange of the produce of his labor for the things which he may require."

On this humane principle, what stronger bonds of union can be invented, than those which enable each individual to transport the produce of his industry 1,200 miles for 60 cents the cwt.? Here, then, is a certain method of securing the union of the states, and of rendering it as lasting as the continent we inhabit.

It is now eleven years that I have had this plan in contemplation for the good of our country. At the conclusion of my work on small canals, there is a letter to Thomas Mifflin, then Governor of the State of Pennsylvania, on a system of canals for America. In it I contemplated the time when "canals should pass through every vale, wind around each hill, and bind the whole country together in the bonds of social intercourse," and I am happy to find that, through the good management of a wise administration, a period has arrived when an overflowing treasury exhibits abundant resources, and points the mind to works of such immense importance. Hoping speedily to see them become favorite objects with the whole American people, I have the honour to be

Your most obedient servant,

ROBERT FULTON.

To Albert Gallatin, Esq., Sec. U. S. Treasury.

ROBERT FULTON'S LETTER TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS,

DATED 1814.

To Gouverneur Morris, Esq., President of the Board of Commissioners of the Western Canal.

NEW YORK, February 22d, 1814.

"SIR:-Numerous engagements have hitherto prevented my paying that attention to the report of the Commissioners, which the importance of the subject merits; but that you may have evidence of my desire to give all the aid in my power to an enterprise so sublime (for I deem that a sublime national work, which will secure wealth and happiness to millions), I have committed to writing, some observations, which, should you consider them of any utility, you will make use of, as you think proper.

In the report of March, 1812, page 9, the Commissioners gave calculations on the expense of conveyance by canals, which calculations were drawn from the experience acquired on canals in England, as to the quantity of work that two horses and three men could do in eight hours; to which, adding the wear and tear of the boat and canal, the decay of horses, and interest on the capital expended in purchasing horses and boats,—also the profit on the boat, and the wages, which are higher in this country than in England, it is shown that the total expense amounts to no more than one cent per ton per mile. As I passed three years at various canals in England, to obtain practical knowledge on the manner of constructing them, and to make myself familiar with their advantages, and was well acquainted with some of the best engineers, I know this calculation to be correct. Hence, one cent per ton per mile is one dollar (289)

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