Visit of John Quincy Adams to Uniontown in 1837--Received
by Dr. Hugh Campbell--The National Road a Monument of
the Past--A Comparison with the Appian Way 353-356
APPENDIX.
Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania Relating to the
Cumberland Road--Unexpended Balances in
Indiana--Accounts of Two Old Commissioners--Rates
of Toll--Letters of Albert Gallatin, Ebenezer Finley
and Thomas A. Wiley--Curiosities of the Old Postal
Service
357-384
ILLUSTRATIONS.
T. B. Searight Frontispiece
Old Mile Post 5
Stage House and Stables at Mt. Washington 13
Gen. Henry W. Beeson 15
Hon. Daniel Sturgeon 16
Hon. Andrew Stewart 47
Old Toll House 53
Iron Bridge over Dunlap's Creek 95
Hon. T. M. T. McKennan 107
Road Wagon 109
John Thompson 111
Daniel Barcus 112
Henry Clay Rush 114
Harrison Wiggins 116
John Marker 118
Ellis B. Woodward 119
John Deets 121
John Snider 122
William Hall 124
John Wallace 126
Alfred Bailes 129
German D. Hair 130
Ashael Willison 135
Jacob Newcomer 137
John Ferren 138
Morris Mauler 140
James Smith, of Henry 144
Stage Coach 146
William Whaley 151
Redding Bunting 152
John Bunting 156
Samuel Luman 158
Joseph Whisson 162
Maj. William A. Donaldson 165
William G. Beck 168
Henry Farwell 171
The Narrows 176
Hanson Willison 178
Matt. Davis 180
John McIlree 182
L. W. Stockton 185
James Reeside 186
William H. Stelle 189
John Kelso 204
David Mahaney 210
John Risler 215
The Temple of Juno 217
The Endsley House 218
The Big Crossings 220
Daniel Collier 222
Sebastian Rush 225
Ruins of John Rush House 226
Hon. Samuel Shipley 229
Stone House, Darlington's 230
James Snyder 232
Gen. Ephraim Douglass 235
Aaron Wyatt 239
The Brownfield House 240
Col. Samuel Elder 242
The Searight House 245
Joseph Gray 247
William Shaw 248
Abel Colley 250
Hon. William Hatfield 252
The Johnson-Hatfield House 254
The Workman House 256
Bridge over the Monongahela 259
Old Tavern at Malden 261
William Greenfield 263
Charles Guttery 265
Billy Robinson 267
Daniel Ward 268
John W. McDowell 270
S. B. Hayes 279
George T. Hammond 281
The Rankin House 283
The Miller House 284
The "S" Bridge 286
David Bell 288
Joseph F. Mayes 291
Mrs. Sarah Beck 292
Col. Moses Shepherd 294
Mrs. Lydia Shepherd 295
John McCortney 296
Bridge over Whitewater River 308
Gen. George W. Cass 311
William Searight 313
William Hopkins 315
Daniel Steenrod 320
W. M. F. Magraw 327
"Crazy Billy" 333
German D. Hair House 353
Dr. Hugh Campbell 354
The Big Water-Trough on Laurel Hill 356
[Illustration: STAGE HOUSE AND STABLES AT MT. WASHINGTON.]
THE OLD PIKE.
CHAPTER I.
_Inception of the Road--Author's Motive in Writing its History--No
History of the Appian Way--A Popular Error Corrected--Henry Clay,
Andrew Stewart, T. M. T. McKennan, Gen. Beeson, Lewis Steenrod and
Daniel Sturgeon--Their Services in Behalf of the Road--Braddock's
Road--Business and Grandeur of the Road--Old and Odd
Names--Taverns--No Beer on the Road--Definition of Turnpike--An Old
Legal Battle._
The road which forms the subject of this volume, is the only highway of
its kind ever wholly constructed by the government of the United States.
When Congress first met after the achievement of Independence and the
adoption of the Federal Constitution, the lack of good roads was much
commented upon by our statesmen and citizens generally, and various
schemes suggested to meet the manifest want. But, it was not until the
year 1806, when Jefferson was President, that the proposition for a
National Road took practical shape. The first step, as will hereinafter
be seen, was the appointment of commissioners to lay out the road, with
an appropriation of money to meet the consequent expense. The author of
this work was born and reared on the line of the road, and has spent his
whole life amid scenes connected with it. He saw it in the zenith of its
glory, and with emotions of sadness witnessed its decline. It was a
highway at once so grand and imposing, an artery so largely instrumental
in promoting the early growth and development of our country's wonderful
resources, so influential in strengthening the bonds of the American
Union, and at the same time so replete with important events and
interesting incidents, that the writer of these pages has long cherished
a hope that some capable hand would write its history and collect and
preserve its legends, and no one having come forward to perform the
task, he has ventured upon it himself, with unaffected diffidence and a
full knowledge of his inability to do justice to the subject.
It is not a little singular that no connected history of the renowned
Appian Way can be found in our libraries. Glimpses of its existence and
importance are seen in the New Testament and in some old volumes of
classic lore, but an accurate and complete history of its inception,
purpose, construction and development, with the incidents, accidents and
anecdotes, which of necessity were connected with it, seems never to
have been written. This should not be said of the great National Road of
the United States of America. The Appian Way has been called the Queen
of Roads. We claim for our National highway that it _was_ the King of
Roads.
Tradition, cheerfully acquiesced in by popular thought, attributes to
Henry Clay the conception of the National Road, but this seems to be
error. The Hon. Andrew Stewart, in a speech delivered in Congress,
January 27th, 1829, asserted that "Mr. Gallatin was the very first man
that ever suggested the plan for making the Cumberland Road." As this
assertion was allowed to go unchallenged, it must be accepted as true,
however strongly and strangely it conflicts with the popular belief
before stated. The reader will bear in mind that the National Road and
the Cumberland Road are one and the same. The road as constructed by
authority of Congress, begins at the city of Cumberland, in the State of
Maryland, and this is the origin of the name Cumberland Road. All the
acts of Congress and of the legislatures of the States through which the
road passes, and they are numerous, refer to it as the Cumberland Road.
The connecting link between Cumberland and the city of Baltimore is a
road much older than the Cumberland Road, constructed and owned by
associations of individuals, and the two together constitute the
National Road.
While it appears from the authority quoted that Henry Clay was not the
planner of the National Road, he was undoubtedly its ablest and most
conspicuous champion. In Mallory's Life of Clay it is stated that "he
advocated the policy of carrying forward the construction of the
Cumberland Road as rapidly as possible," and with what earnestness,
continues his biographer, "we may learn from his own language, declaring
that he had to _beg_, _entreat_ and _supplicate_ Congress, session after
session, to grant the necessary appropriations to complete the road."
Mr. Clay said, "I have myself toiled until my powers have been exhausted
and prostrated to prevail on you to make the grant." No wonder Mr. Clay
was a popular favorite along the whole line of the road. At a public
dinner tendered him by the mechanics of Wheeling, he spoke of "the great
interest the road had awakened in his breast, and expressed an ardent
desire that it might be prosecuted to a speedy completion." Among other
things he said that "a few years since he and his family had employed
the whole or greater part of a day in traveling the distance of about
nine miles from Uniontown to Freeman's,[A] on Laurel Hill, which now,
since the construction of the road over the mountains, could be
accomplished, together with seventy more in the same time," and that
"the road was so important to the maintenance of our Union that he
would not consent to give it up to the keeping of the several States
through which it passed."
[Footnote A: Benjamin Freeman kept a tavern on the old Braddock
Road, a short distance south of Mt. Washington.
Locating his house on Laurel Hill, was an error of
Mr. Clay, but of little consequence, and readily
made under the circumstances. A monument was
erected, and is still standing, on the roadside near
Wheeling, commemorative of the services of Mr. Clay
in behalf of the road.]
[Illustration: GEN. HENRY W. BEESON.]
Hon. Andrew Stewart, of Uniontown, who served many years in Congress,
beginning with 1820, was, next to Mr. Clay, the most widely known and
influential congressional friend of the road, and in earnestness and
persistency in this behalf, not excelled even by Mr. Clay. Hon. T. M. T.
McKennan, an old congressman of Washington, Pennsylvania, was likewise a
staunch friend of the road, carefully guarding its interests and
pressing its claims upon the favorable consideration of Congress. Gen.
Henry W. Beeson, of Uniontown, who represented the Fayette and Greene
district of Pennsylvania in Congress in the forties, was an indomitable
friend of the road. He stoutly opposed the extension of the Baltimore
and Ohio railroad west of Cumberland, through Pennsylvania, and was
thoroughly sustained by his constituents. In one of his characteristic
speeches on the subject, he furnished a careful estimate of the number
of horse-shoes made by the blacksmiths along the road, the number of
nails required to fasten them to the horses' feet, the number of bushels
of grain and tons of hay furnished by the farmers to the tavern keepers,
the vast quantity of chickens, turkeys, eggs and butter that found a
ready market on the line, and other like statistical information going
to show that the National Road would better subserve the public weal
than a steam railroad. This view at the time, and in the locality
affected, was regarded as correct, which serves as an illustration of
the change that takes place in public sentiment, as the wheels of time
revolve and the ingenuity of man expands. Lewis Steenrod, of the
Wheeling district, was likewise an able and influential congressional
friend of the road. He was the son of Daniel Steenrod, an old
tavernkeeper on the road, near Wheeling; and the Cumberland, Maryland,
district always sent men to Congress who favored the preservation and
maintenance of the road. Hon. Daniel Sturgeon, who served as a senator
of the United States for the State of Pennsylvania from 1840 to 1852,
was also an undeviating and influential friend of the road. He gave
unremitting attention and untiring support to every measure brought
before the Senate during his long and honorable service in that body,
designed to make for the road's prosperity, and preserve and maintain it
as the nation's great highway. His home was in Uniontown, on the line of
the road, and he was thoroughly identified with it alike in sentiment
and interest. He was not a showy statesman, but the possessor of
incorruptible integrity and wielded an influence not beneath that of any
of his compeers, among whom were that renowned trio of Senators, Clay,
Webster and Calhoun.
Frequent references will be made in these pages to the Old Braddock
Road, but it is not the purpose of the writer to go into the history of
that ancient highway. This volume is devoted exclusively to the National
Road. We think it pertinent, however, to remark that Braddock's Road
would have been more appropriately named Washington's Road. Washington
passed over it in command of a detachment of Virginia troops more than a
year before Braddock ever saw it. Mr. Veech, the eminent local
historian, says that Braddock's Road and Nemicolon's Indian trail are
identical, so that Nemicolon, the Indian, would seem to have a higher
claim to the honor of giving name to this old road than General
Braddock. However, time, usage and common consent unite in calling it
Braddock's Road, and, as a rule, we hold it to be very unwise, not to
say downright foolishness, to undertake to change old and familiar
names. It is difficult to do, and ought not to be done.
From the time it was thrown open to the public, in the year 1818, until
the coming of railroads west of the Allegheny mountains, in 1852, the
National Road was the one great highway, over which passed the bulk of
trade and travel, and the mails between the East and the West. Its
numerous and stately stone bridges with handsomely turned arches, its
iron mile posts and its old iron gates, attest the skill of the workmen
engaged on its construction, and to this day remain enduring monuments
of its grandeur and solidity, all save the imposing iron gates, which
have disappeared by process of conversion prompted by some utilitarian
idea, savoring in no little measure of sacrilege. Many of the most
illustrious statesmen and heroes of the early period of our national
existence passed over the National Road from their homes to the capital
and back, at the opening and closing of the sessions of Congress.
Jackson, Harrison, Clay, Sam Houston, Polk, Taylor, Crittenden, Shelby,
Allen, Scott, Butler, the eccentric Davy Crockett, and many of their
contemporaries in public service, were familiar figures in the eyes of
the dwellers by the roadside. The writer of these pages frequently saw
these distinguished men on their passage over the road, and remembers
with no little pride the incident of shaking hands with General Jackson,
as he sat in his carriage on the wagon-yard of an old tavern. A coach,
in which Mr. Clay was proceeding to Washington, was upset on a pile of
limestone, in the main street of Uniontown, a few moments after supper
at the McClelland house. Sam Sibley was the driver of that coach, and
had his nose broken by the accident. Mr. Clay was unhurt, and upon being
extricated from the grounded coach, facetiously remarked that: "This is
mixing the Clay of Kentucky with the limestone of Pennsylvania."
As many as twenty-four horse coaches have been counted in line at one
time on the road, and large, broad-wheeled wagons, covered with white
canvass stretched over bows, laden with merchandise and drawn by six
Conestoga horses, were visible all the day long at every point, and many
times until late in the evening, besides innumerable caravans of horses,
mules, cattle, hogs and sheep. It looked more like the leading avenue of
a great city than a road through rural districts.
[Illustration: HON. DANIEL STURGEON.]
The road had a peculiar nomenclature, familiar to the tens of thousands
who traveled over it in its palmy days. The names, for example, applied
to particular localities on the line, are of striking import, and
blend harmoniously with the unique history of the road. With these names
omitted, the road would be robbed of much that adds interest to its
history. Among the best remembered of these are, The Shades of Death,
The Narrows, Piney Grove, Big Crossings, Negro Mountain, Keyser's Ridge,
Woodcock Hill, Chalk Hill, Big Savage, Little Savage, Snake Hill, Laurel
Hill, The Turkey's Nest, Egg Nog Hill, Coon Island and Wheeling Hill.
Rich memories cluster around every one of these names, and old wagoners
and stage drivers delight to linger over the scenes they bring to mind.
The road was justly renowned for the great number and excellence of its
inns or taverns. On the mountain division, every mile had its tavern.
Here one could be seen perched on some elevated site, near the roadside,
and there another, sheltered behind a clump of trees, many of them with
inviting seats for idlers, and all with cheerful fronts toward the weary
traveler. The sign-boards were elevated upon high and heavy posts, and
their golden letters winking in the sun, ogled the wayfarer from the hot
road-bed and gave promise of good cheer, while the big trough,
overflowing with clear, fresh water, and the ground below it sprinkled
with droppings of fragrant peppermint, lent a charm to the scene that
was well nigh enchanting.
The great majority of the taverns were called wagon stands, because
their patrons were largely made up of wagoners, and each provided with
grounds called the wagon-yard, whereon teams were driven to feed, and
rest over night. The very best of entertainment was furnished at these
wagon stands. The taverns whereat stage horses were kept and exchanged,
and stage passengers took meals, were called "stage houses," located at
intervals of about twelve miles, as nearly as practicable.
The beer of the present day was unknown, or if known, unused on the
National Road during the era of its prosperity. Ale was used in limited
quantities, but was not a favorite drink. Whisky was the leading
beverage, and it was plentiful and cheap. The price of a drink of whisky
was three cents, except at the stage houses, where by reason of an
assumption of aristocracy the price was five cents. The whisky of that
day is said to have been pure, and many persons of unquestioned
respectability affirm with much earnestness that it never produced
delirium tremens. The current coin of the road was the big copper cent
of United States coinage, the "fippenny bit," Spanish, of the value of
six and one-fourth cents, called for brevity a "fip," the "levy,"
Spanish, of the value of twelve and a half cents, the quarter, the half
dollar, and the dollar. The Mexican and Spanish milled dollar were
oftener seen than the United States dollar. The silver five-cent piece
and the dime of the United States coinage were seen occasionally, but
not so much used as the "fip" and the "levy." In times of stringency,
the stage companies issued scrip in denominations ranging from five
cents to a dollar, which passed readily as money. The scrip was similar
to the postal currency of the war period, lacking only in the artistic
skill displayed in the engraving of the latter. A hungry traveler could
obtain a substantial meal at an old wagon stand tavern for a "levy," and
two drinks of whisky for a "fippenny bit." The morning bill of a wagoner
with a six-horse team did not exceed one dollar and seventy-five cents,
which included grain and hay for the horses, meals for the driver, and
all the drinks he saw proper to take.
The National Road is not in a literal sense a turnpike. A turnpike, in
the original meaning of the word, is a road upon which pikes were placed
to turn travelers thereon through gates, to prevent them from evading
the payment of toll. Pikes were not used, or needed on the National
Road. It was always kept in good condition, and travelers thereon, as a
rule, paid the required toll without complaining. At distances of
fifteen miles, on the average, houses were erected for toll collectors
to dwell in, and strong iron gates, hung to massive iron posts, were
established to enforce the payment of toll in cases of necessity. These
toll houses were of uniform size, angular and round, west of the
mountains constructed of brick, and through the mountains, of stone,
except the one six miles west of Cumberland, which is of brick. They are
all standing on their old sites at this date (1893), except the one that
stood near Mt. Washington, and the one that stood near the eastern base
of Big Savage Mountain. At the last mentioned point, the old iron gate
posts are still standing, firmly rooted in their original foundations,
and plastered all over with advertisements of Frostburg's business
houses, but the old house and the old gates have gone out of sight
forever.
It is curious to note how the word turnpike has been perverted from its
literal meaning by popular usage. The common idea is that a turnpike is
a road made of stone, and that the use of stone is that alone which
makes it a turnpike. The common phrase, "piking a road," conveys the
idea of putting stones on it, whereas in fact, there is no connection
between a stone and a pike, and a road might be a turnpike without a
single stone upon it. It is the contrivance to turn travelers through
gates, before mentioned, that makes a turnpike. We recall but one
instance of a refusal to pay toll for passing over the National Road,
and that was a remarkable one. It grew out of a misconception of the
scope of the act of Congress, providing for the exemption from toll of
carriages conveying the United States mails. The National Road Stage
Company, commonly called the "Old Line," of which Lucius W. Stockton was
the controlling spirit, was a contractor for carrying the mails, and
conceived the idea that by placing a mail pouch in every one of its
passenger coaches it could evade the payment of toll. Stage companies
did not pay toll to the collectors at the gates, like ordinary
travelers, but at stated periods to the Road Commissioner. At the time
referred to, William Searight, father of the writer, was the
commissioner in charge of the entire line of the road through the state
of Pennsylvania, and it was fifty years ago. Upon presenting his account
to Mr. Stockton, who lived at Uniontown, for accumulated tolls, that
gentleman refused payment on the ground that all his coaches carried the
mail, and were therefore exempt from toll. The commissioner was of
opinion that the act of Congress could not be justly construed to cover
so broad a claim, and notified Mr. Stockton that if the toll was not
paid the gates would be closed against his coaches. Mr. Stockton was a
resolute as well as an enterprising man, and persisted in his position,
whereupon an order was given to close the gates against the passage of
his coaches until the legal toll was paid. The writer was present,
though a boy, at an execution of this order at the gate five miles west
of Uniontown. It was in the morning. The coaches came along at the usual
time and the gates were securely closed against them. The commissioner
superintended the act in person, and a large number of people from the
neighborhood attended to witness the scene, anticipating tumult and
violence, as to which they were happily disappointed. The drivers
accepted the situation with good nature, but the passengers, impatient
to proceed, after learning the cause of the halt, paid the toll,
whereupon the gates were thrown open, and the coaches sped on. For a
considerable time after this occurrence an agent was placed on the
coaches to pay the toll at the gates. Mr. Stockton instituted
prosecutions against the commissioner for obstructing the passage of the
United States mails, which were not pressed to trial, but the main
contention was carried to the Supreme Court of the United States for
adjudication on a case stated, and Mr. Stockton's broad claim was
denied, the court of last resort holding that "the exemption from tolls
did not apply to any other property (than the mails) conveyed in the
same vehicle, nor to any persons traveling in it, unless he was in the
service of the United States and passing along the road in pursuance of
orders from the proper authority; and further, that the exemption could
not be claimed for more carriages than were necessary for the safe,
speedy and convenient conveyance of the mail." This case is reported in
full in 3d Howard U. S. Reports, page 151 _et seq._, including the full
text of Chief Justice Taney's opinion, and elaborate dissenting opinions
by Justices McClean and Daniel. The attorneys for the road in this
controversy were Hon. Robert P. Flenniken and Hon. James Veech of
Uniontown, and Hon. Robert J. Walker of Mississippi, who was Secretary
of the Treasury in the cabinet of President Polk. After this decision,
and by reason of it, the Legislature of Pennsylvania enacted the law of
April 14th, 1845, still in force, authorizing the collection of tolls
from passengers traveling in coaches which at the same time carried the
mail.
CHAPTER II.
_Origin of the Fund for Making the Road.--Acts for the Admission of
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri--Report of a Committee of
Congress as to the Manner of Applying the Ohio Fund--Distances from
Important Eastern Cities to the Ohio River--The Richmond Route
Postponed--The Spirit and Perseverance of Pennsylvania--Maryland,
"My Maryland," not behind Pennsylvania--Wheeling the Objective
Point--Brownsville a Prominent Point--Rivers tend to Union,
Mountains to Disunion._
Act of April 30, 1802, for the admission of Ohio, provides that
one-twentieth part of the net proceeds of the lands lying within the
said State sold by Congress, from and after the 30th of June next, after
deducting all expenses incident to the same, shall be applied to laying
out and making public roads leading from navigable waters emptying into
the Atlantic to the Ohio, to the said State and through the same, such
roads to be laid out under the authority of Congress, with the consent
of the several States through which the road shall pass.
Act of April 19, 1816, for the admission of Indiana, provides that five
per cent. of the net proceeds of lands lying within the said territory,
and which shall be sold by Congress from and after the first day of
December next, after deducting all expenses incident to the same, shall
be reserved for making public roads and canals, of which three-fifths
shall be applied to those objects within the said State under the
direction of the Legislature thereof, and two-fifths to the making of a
road or roads leading to the said State under the direction of Congress.
Act of April 18, 1818, for the admission of Illinois, provides that five
per cent. of the net proceeds of the lands lying within the said State,
and which shall be sold by Congress from and after the first day of
January, 1819, after deducting all expenses incident to the same, shall
be reserved for the purposes following, viz: Two-fifths to be disbursed
under the direction of Congress in making roads leading to the State,
the residue to be appropriated by the Legislature of the State for the
encouragement of learning, of which one-sixth part shall be exclusively
bestowed on a college or university.
Act of March 6, 1820, admitting Missouri, provides that five per cent.
of the net proceeds of the sale of lands lying within the said Territory
or State, and which shall be sold by Congress from and after the first
day of January next, after deducting all expenses incident to the same,
shall be reserved for making public roads and canals, of which
three-fifths shall be applied to those objects within the State under
the direction of the Legislature thereof, and the other two-fifths in
defraying, under the direction of Congress, the expenses to be incurred
in making a road or roads, canal or canals, leading to the said State.
No. 195.
NINTH CONGRESS--FIRST SESSION.
CUMBERLAND ROAD.
Communicated to the Senate December 19, 1805.
Mr. Tracy, from the committee to whom was referred the examination of
the act entitled, "An act to enable the people of the eastern division
of the territory northwest of the river Ohio to form a Constitution and
State Government, and for the admission of such State into the Union on
an equal footing with the original States, and for other purposes;" and
to report the manner in which, in their opinion, the money appropriated
by said act ought to be applied, made the following report:
That, upon examination of the act aforesaid, they find "the
one-twentieth part, or five per cent., of the net proceeds of the lands
lying within the State of Ohio, and sold by Congress from and after the
30th day of June, 1802, is appropriated for the laying out and making
public roads leading from the navigable waters emptying into the
Atlantic to the river Ohio, to said State, and through the same; such
roads to be laid out under the authority of Congress, with the consent
of the several States through which the road shall pass."
They find that by a subsequent law, passed on the 3d day of March, 1803,
Congress appropriated three per cent. of the said five per cent. to
laying out and making roads _within_ the State of Ohio, leaving two per
cent. of the appropriation contained in the first mentioned law
unexpended, which now remains for "_the laying out, and making roads
from the navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic to the river Ohio,
to said State_."
They find that the net proceeds of sales of land in the State of Ohio,
From 1st July, 1802, to June 30, 1803, both inclusive, were $124,400 92
From 1st July, 1803, to June 30, 1804 176,203 35
From 1st July, 1804, to June 30, 1805 266,000 00
From 1st July, 1805, to Sept. 30, 1805 66,000 00
-----------
Amounting, in the whole, to $632,604 27
Two per cent. on which sum amounts to $12,652. Twelve thousand six
hundred and fifty-two dollars were, therefore, on the 1st day of October
last, subject to the uses directed by law, as mentioned in this report;
and it will be discerned that the fund is constantly accumulating, and
will, probably, by the time regular preparations can be made for its
expenditure, amount to eighteen or twenty thousand dollars. The
committee have examined, as far as their limited time and the scanty
sources of facts within their reach would permit, the various routes
which have been contemplated for laying out roads pursuant to the
provisions of the act first mentioned in this report.
They find that the distance from Philadelphia to Pittsburg is 314 miles
by the usual route, and on a straight line about 270.
From Philadelphia to the nearest point on the river Ohio, contiguous to
the State of Ohio, which is probably between Steubenville and the mouth
of Grave creek, the distance by the usual route is 360 miles, and on a
straight line about 308.
From Baltimore to the river Ohio, between the same points, and by the
usual route, is 275 miles, and on a straight line 224.
From this city (Washington) to the same points on the river Ohio, the
distance is nearly the same as from Baltimore; probably the difference
is not a plurality of miles.
From Richmond, in Virginia, to the nearest point on the river Ohio, the
distance by the usual route is 377 miles; but new roads are opening
which will shorten the distance fifty or sixty miles; 247 miles of the
contemplated road, from Richmond northwesterly, will be as good as the
roads usually are in that country, but the remaining seventy or eighty
miles are bad, for the present, and probably will remain so for a length
of time, as there seems to be no existing inducement for the State of
Virginia to incur the expense of making that part of the road passable.
From Baltimore to the Monongahela river, where the route from Baltimore
to the Ohio river will intersect it, the distance as usually traveled is
218 miles, and on a straight line about 184. From this point, which is
at or near Brownsville, boats can pass down, with great facility, to the
State of Ohio, during a number of months in every year.
The above distances are not all stated from actual mensuration, but it
is believed they are sufficiently correct for the present purpose.
The committee have not examined any routes northward of that leading
from Philadelphia to the river Ohio, nor southward of that leading from
Richmond, because they suppose the roads to be laid out must strike the
river Ohio on some point contiguous to the State of Ohio, in order to
satisfy the words of the law making the appropriation; the words are:
"Leading from the navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic, to the
river Ohio, to the said State, and through the same."
The mercantile intercourse of the citizens of Ohio with those of the
Atlantic States is chiefly in Philadelphia and Baltimore; not very
extensive in the towns on the Potomac, within the District of Columbia,
and still less with Richmond, in Virginia. At present, the greatest
portion of their trade is with Philadelphia; but it is believed their
trade is rapidly increasing with Baltimore, owing to the difference of
distance in favor of Baltimore, and to the advantage of boating down the
Monongahela river, from the point where the road strikes it, about 70
miles by water, and 50 by land, above Pittsburg.
The sum appropriated for laying out and making roads is so small that
the committee have thought it most expedient to direct an expenditure to
one route only. They have therefore endeavored to fix on that which, for
the present, will be most accommodating to the citizens of the State of
Ohio; leaving to the future benevolence and policy of congress, an
extension of their operations on this or other routes, and an increase
of the requisite fund, as the discoveries of experience may point out
their expediency and necessity. The committee being fully convinced that
a wise government can never lose sight of an object so important as that
of connecting a numerous and rapidly increasing population, spread upon
a fertile and extensive territory, with the Atlantic States, now
separated from them by mountains, which, by industry and an expense
moderate in comparison with the advantages, can be rendered passable.
The route from Richmond must necessarily approach the State of Ohio in a
part thinly inhabited, and which, from the nature of the soil and other
circumstances, must remain so, at least for a considerable time; and,
from the hilly and rough condition of the country, no roads are or can
be conveniently made, leading to the principal population of the State
of Ohio.
These considerations have induced the committee to postpone, for the
present, any further consideration of that route.
The spirit and perseverance of Pennsylvania are such, in the matter of
road making, that no doubt can remain but they will, in a little time,
complete a road from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, as good as the nature of
the ground will permit. They are so particularly interested to
facilitate the intercourse between their trading capital, Philadelphia,
not only to Pittsburg, but also to the extensive country within that
State, on the western waters, that they will, of course, surmount the
difficulties presented by the Allegheny mountain, Chestnut Ridge and
Laurel Hill, the three great and almost exclusive impediments which now
exist on that route.
The State of Maryland, with no less spirit and perseverance, are engaged
in making roads from Baltimore and from the western boundary of the
District of Columbia, through Fredericktown, to Williamsport. Were the
Government of the United States to direct the expenditure of the fund in
contemplation upon either of these routes, for the present, in
Pennsylvania or Maryland, it would, probably, so far interfere with the
operations of the respective States, as to produce mischief instead of
benefit; especially as the sum to be laid out by the United States is
too inconsiderable, alone, to effect objects of such magnitude. But as
the State of Maryland have no particular interest to extend their road
across the mountains (and if they had it would be impracticable, because
the State does not extend so far), the committee have thought it
expedient to recommend the laying out and making a road from Cumberland,
on the northerly bank of the Potomac, and within the State of Maryland,
to the river Ohio, at the most convenient place between a point on the
easterly bank of said river, opposite to Steubenville, and the mouth of
Grave creek, which empties into said river Ohio a little below Wheeling,
in Virginia. This route will meet and accommodate the roads leading from
Baltimore and the District of Columbia; it will cross the Monongahela
river, at or near Brownsville, sometimes called Redstone, where the
advantage of boating can be taken; and from the point where it will
probably intersect the river Ohio, there are now roads, or they can
easily be made over feasible and proper ground, to and through the
principal population of the State of Ohio.
Cumberland is situated at the eastern foot of the Allegheny mountains,
about eighty miles from Williamsport, by the usual route, which is
circuitous, owing to a large bend in the river Potomac, on the bank of
which the road now runs, the distance on a straight line is not more
than fifty or fifty-five miles, and over tolerable ground for a road,
which will probably be opened by the State of Maryland, should the route
be established over the mountains, as contemplated by this report.
From Cumberland to the western extremity of Laurel Hill, by the route
now travelled, the distance is sixty-six miles, and on a straight line
about fifty-five; on this part of the route, the committee suppose the
first and very considerable expenditures are specially necessary. From
Laurel Hill to the Ohio river, by the usual route, is about seventy
miles, and on a straight line fifty-four or five; the road is tolerable,
though capable of amelioration.
To carry into effect the principles arising from the foregoing facts,
the committee present herewith a bill for the consideration of the
Senate. They suppose that to take the proper measures for carrying into
effect the section of the law respecting a road or roads to the State of
Ohio, is a duty imposed upon Congress by the law itself, and that a
sense of duty will always be sufficient to insure the passage of the
bill now offered to the Senate. To enlarge upon the highly important
considerations of cementing the union of our citizens located on the
Western waters with those of the Atlantic States, would be an indelicacy
offered to the understandings of the body to whom this report is
addressed, as it might seem to distrust them. But from the interesting
nature of the subject, the committee are induced to ask the indulgence
of a single observation: Politicians have generally agreed that rivers
unite the interests and promote the friendship of those who inhabit
their banks; while mountains, on the contrary, tend to the disunion and
estrangement of those who are separated by their intervention. In the
present case, to make the crooked ways straight, and the rough ways
smooth will, in effect, remove the intervening mountains, and by
facilitating the intercourse of our Western brethren with those on the
Atlantic, substantially unite them in interest, which, the committee
believe, is the most effectual cement of union applicable to the human
race.
All which is most respectfully submitted.
CHAPTER III.
_The Act of Congress Authorizing the Laying Out and Making of the Road._
An Act to Regulate the Laying Out and Making a Road from Cumberland,
in the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio.
_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled_, That the President of the
United States be, and he is hereby authorized to appoint, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, three discreet and disinterested
citizens of the United States, to lay out a road from Cumberland, or a
point on the northern bank of the river Potomac, in the State of
Maryland, between Cumberland and the place where the main road leading
from Gwynn's to Winchester, in Virginia, crosses the river, to the State
of Ohio; whose duty it shall be, as soon as may be, after their
appointment, to repair to Cumberland aforesaid, and view the ground,
from the points on the river Potomac hereinbefore designated, to the
river Ohio; and to lay out in such direction as they shall judge, under
all circumstances the most proper, a road from thence to the river Ohio,
to strike the same at the most convenient place, between a point on its
eastern bank, opposite the northern boundary of Steubenville, in said
State of Ohio, and the mouth of Grave creek, which empties into the said
river a little below Wheeling, in Virginia.
SEC. 2. _And be it further enacted_, That the aforesaid road shall be
laid out four rods in width, and designated on each side by a plain and
distinguishable mark on a tree, or by the erection of a stake or
monument sufficiently conspicuous, in every quarter of a mile of the
distance at least, where the road pursues a straight course so far or
farther, and on each side, at every point where an angle occurs in its
course.
SEC. 3. _And be it further enacted_, That the commissioners shall, as
soon as may be, after they have laid out said road, as aforesaid,
present to the President an accurate plan of the same, with its several
courses and distances, accompanied by a written report of their
proceedings, describing the marks and monuments by which the road is
designated, and the face of the country over which it passes, and
pointing out the particular parts which they shall judge require the
most and immediate attention and amelioration, and the probable expense
of making the same passable in the most difficult parts, and through the
whole distance; designating the State or States through which said road
has been laid out, and the length of the several parts which are laid
out on new ground, as well as the length of those parts laid out on the
road now traveled. Which report the President is hereby authorized to
accept or reject, in the whole or in part. If he accepts, he is hereby
further authorized and requested to pursue such measures, as in his
opinion shall be proper, to obtain consent for making the road, of the
State or States through which the same has been laid out. Which consent
being obtained, he is further authorized to take prompt and effectual
measures to cause said road to be made through the whole distance, or in
any part or parts of the same as he shall judge most conducive to the
public good, having reference to the sum appropriated for the purpose.
SEC. 4. _And be it further enacted_, That all parts of the road which
the President shall direct to be made, in case the trees are standing,
shall be cleared the whole width of four rods; and the road shall be
raised in the middle of the carriageway with stone, earth, or gravel and
sand, or a combination of some or all of them, leaving or making, as the
case may be, a ditch or water course on each side and contiguous to said
carriageway, and in no instance shall there be an elevation in said
road, when finished, greater than an angle of five degrees with the
horizon. But the manner of making said road, in every other particular,
is left to the direction of the President.
SEC. 5. _And be it further enacted_, That said Commissioners shall each
receive four dollars per day, while employed as aforesaid, in full for
their compensation, including all expenses. And they are hereby
authorized to employ one surveyor, two chainmen and one marker, for
whose faithfulness and accuracy they, the said Commissioners, shall be
responsible, to attend them in laying out said road, who shall receive
in full satisfaction for their wages, including all expenses, the
surveyor three dollars per day, and each chainman and the marker one
dollar per day, while they shall be employed in said business, of which
fact a certificate signed by said commissioners shall be deemed
sufficient evidence.
SEC. 6. _And be it further enacted_, That the sum of thirty thousand
dollars be, and the same is hereby appropriated, to defray the expense
of laying out and making said road. And the President is hereby
authorized to draw, from time to time, on the treasury for such parts,
or at any one time, for the whole of said sum, as he shall judge the
service requires. Which sum of thirty thousand dollars shall be paid,
first, out of the fund of two per cent, reserved for laying out and
making roads _to_ the State of Ohio, by virtue of the seventh section of
an act passed on the thirtieth day of April, one thousand eight hundred
and two, entitled, "An act to enable the people of the eastern division
of the territory northwest of the river Ohio to form a constitution and
State government, and for the admission of such State into the Union on
an equal footing with the original States, and for other purposes."
Three per cent. of the appropriation contained in said seventh section
being directed by a subsequent law to the laying out, opening and
making roads _within_ the said State of Ohio; and secondly, out of any
money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, chargeable upon, and
reimbursable at the treasury by said fund of two per cent. as the same
shall accrue.
SEC. 7. _And be it further enacted_, That the President be, and he is
hereby requested, to cause to be laid before Congress, as soon as
convenience will permit, after the commencement of each session, a
statement of the proceedings under this act, that Congress may be
enabled to adopt such further measures as may from time to time be
proper under existing circumstances.
_Approved, March 29, 1806._ TH. JEFFERSON.
* * * * *
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, }
DEPARTMENT OF STATE.}
_To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting_:
I certify that hereto annexed is a true copy of an Act of Congress,
approved March 29, 1806, the original of which is on file in this
Department, entitled: "An Act to regulate the laying out and making a
road from Cumberland, in the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio."
In testimony whereof, I, James G. Blaine, Secretary of State of the
United States, have hereunto subscribed my name and caused the seal of
the Department of State to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this seventh day of March, A. D. 1891,
and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and
fifteenth.
JAMES G. BLAINE.
CHAPTER IV.
_Special Message of President Jefferson--Communicating to Congress the
First Report of the Commissioners--They View the Whole
Ground--Solicitude of the Inhabitants--Points Considered--Cumberland
the First Point Located--Uniontown Left Out--Improvement of the
Youghiogheny--Distances--Connellsville a Promising Town--"A Well
Formed, Stone Capped Road"--Estimated Cost, $6,000 per Mile, exclusive
of Bridges._
No. 220.
NINTH CONGRESS--SECOND SESSION.
January 31, 1807.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
In execution of the act of the last session of Congress, entitled, "An
act to regulate the laying out and making a road from Cumberland, in the
State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio," I appointed Thomas Moore, of
Maryland, Joseph Kerr, of Ohio, and Eli Williams, of Maryland,
commissioners to lay out the said road, and to perform the other duties
assigned to them by the act. The progress which they made in the
execution of the work, during the last season, will appear in their
report now communicated to Congress; on the receipt of it, I took
measures to obtain consent for making the road of the States of
Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, through which the commissioners
propose to lay it out. I have received acts of the Legislatures of
Maryland and Virginia, giving the consent desired; that of Pennsylvania
has the subject still under consideration, as is supposed. Until I
receive full consent to a free choice of route through the whole
distance, I have thought it safest neither to accept nor reject,
finally, the partial report of the commissioners.
Some matters suggested in the report belong exclusively to the
legislature.
TH. JEFFERSON.
* * * * *
The commissioners, acting by appointment under the law of Congress,
entitled "An act to regulate the laying out and making a road from
Cumberland, in the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio," beg leave to
report to the President of the United States, and to premise that the
duties imposed by the law became a work of greater magnitude, and a task
much more arduous, than was conceived before entering upon it; from
which circumstance the commissioners did not allow themselves sufficient
time for the performance of it before the severity of the weather
obliged them to retire from it, which was the case in the first week of
the present month (December). That, not having fully accomplished their
work, they are unable fully to report a discharge of all the duties
enjoined by the law; but as the most material and principal part has
been performed, and as a communication of the progress already made may
be useful and proper, during the present session of Congress, and of the
Legislatures of those States through which the route passes, the
commissioners respectfully state that at a very early period it was
conceived that the maps of the country were not sufficiently accurate to
afford a minute knowledge of the true courses between the extreme points
on the rivers, by which the researches of the commissioners were to be
governed; a survey for that purpose became indispensable, and
considerations of public economy suggested the propriety of making this
survey precede the personal attendance of the commissioners.
Josias Thompson, a surveyor of professional merit, was taken into
service and authorized to employ two chain carriers and a marker, as
well as one vaneman, and a packhorse man and horse, on public account;
the latter being indispensable and really beneficial in excelerating the
work. The surveyors' instructions are contained in document No. 1,
accompanying this report.
Calculating on a reasonable time for the performance of the instructions
to the surveyor, the commissioners, by correspondence, fixed on the
first day of September last, for their meeting at Cumberland to proceed
in the work; neither of them, however, reached that place until the
third of that month, on which day they all met.
The surveyor having, under his instructions, laid down a plat of his
work, showing the meanders of the Potomac and Ohio rivers, within the
limits prescribed for the commissioners, as also the road between those
rivers, which is commonly traveled from Cumberland to Charleston, in
part called Braddock's road; and the same being produced to the
commissioners, whereby straight lines and their true courses were shown
between the extreme points on each river, and the boundaries which limit
the powers of the commissioners being thereby ascertained, serving as a
basis whereon to proceed in the examination of the grounds and face of
the country; the commissioners thus prepared commenced the business of
exploring; and in this it was considered that a faithful discharge of
the discretionary powers vested by the law made it necessary to view the
whole to be able to judge of a preference due to any part of the
grounds, which imposed a task of examining a space comprehending upwards
of two thousand square miles; a task rendered still more incumbent by
the solicitude and importunities of the inhabitants of every part of the
district, who severally conceived their grounds entitled to a
preference. It becoming necessary, in the interim, to run various lines
of experiment for ascertaining the geographical position of several
points entitled to attention, and the service suffering great delay for
want of another surveyor, it was thought consistent with the public
interest to employ, in that capacity, Arthur Rider, the vaneman, who had
been chosen with qualification to meet such an emergency; and whose
service as vaneman could then be dispensed with. He commenced, as
surveyor, on the 22d day of September, and continued so at field work
until the first day of December, when he was retained as a necessary
assistant to the principal surveyor, in copying field notes and
hastening the draught of the work to be reported.
The proceedings of the commissioners are specially detailed in their
general journal, compiled from the daily journal of each commissioner,
to which they beg leave to refer, under mark No. 2.
After a careful and critical examination of all the grounds within the
limits prescribed, as well as the grounds and ways out from the Ohio
westwardly, at several points, and examining the shoal parts of the Ohio
river as detailed in the table of soundings, stated in their journal,
and after gaining all the information, geographical, general and
special, possible and necessary, toward a judicial discharge of the
duties assigned them, the commissioners repaired to Cumberland to
examine and compare their notes and journals, and determine upon the
direction and location of their route.
In this consultation the governing objects were:
1st. Shortness of distance between navigable points on the eastern and
western waters.
2d. A point on the Monongahela best calculated to equalize the
advantages of this portage in the country within reach of it.
3d. A point on the Ohio river most capable of combining certainty of
navigation with road accommodation; embracing, in this estimate, remote
points westwardly, as well as present and probable population on the
north and south.
4th. Best mode of diffusing benefits with least distance of road.
In contemplating these objects, due attention was paid as well to the
comparative merits of towns, establishments, and settlements already
made, as to the capacity of the country with the present and probable
population.
In the course of arrangement, and in its order, the first point located
for the route was determined and fixed at Cumberland, a decision founded
on propriety, and in some measure on necessity, from the circumstance of
a high and difficult mountain, called Nobley, laying and confining the
east margin of the Potomac so as to render it impossible of access on
that side without immense expense, at any point between Cumberland and
where the road from Winchester to Gwynn's crosses, and even there the
Nobley mountain is crossed with much difficulty and hazard. And this
upper point was taxed with another formidable objection; it was found
that a high range of mountains, called Dan's, stretching across from
Gwynn's to the Potomac, above this point, precluded the opportunity of
extending a route from this point in a proper direction, and left no
alternative but passing by Gwynn's; the distance from Cumberland to
Gwynn's being upward of a mile less than from the upper point, which
lies ten miles by water above Cumberland, the commissioners were not
permitted to hesitate in preferring a point which shortens the portage,
as well as the Potomac navigation.
The point on the Potomac being viewed as a great repository of produce,
which a good road will bring from the west of Laurel Hill, and the
advantages which Cumberland, as a town, has in that respect over an
unimproved place, are additional considerations operating forcibly in
favor of the place preferred.
In extending the route from Cumberland, a triple range of mountains,
stretching across from Jenings' run in measure with Gwynn's, left only
the alternative of laying the road up Will's creek for three miles,
nearly at right angles with the true course, and then by way of Jenings'
run, or extending it over a break in the smallest mountain, on a better
course by Gwynn's, to the top of Savage mountain; the latter was
adopted, being the shortest, and will be less expensive in hill-side
digging over a sloped route than the former, requiring one bridge over
Will's creek and several over Jenings' run, both very wide and
considerable streams in high water; and a more weighty reason for
preferring the route by Gwynn's is the great accommodation it will
afford travelers from Winchester by the upper point, who could not reach
the route by Jenings' run short of the top of Savage, which would
withhold from them the benefit of an easy way up the mountain.
It is, however, supposed that those who travel from Winchester by way of
the upper point to Gwynn's, are in that respect more the dupes of common
prejudice than judges of their own case, as it is believed the way will
be as short, and on much better ground, to cross the Potomac below the
confluence of the north and south branches (thereby crossing these
two, as well as Patterson's creek, in one stream, equally fordable in the
same season), than to pass through Cumberland to Gwynn's. Of these
grounds, however, the commissioners do not speak from actual view, but
consider it a subject well worthy of future investigation. Having gained
the top of Allegany mountain, or rather the top of that part called
Savage, by way of Gwynn's, the general route, as it respects the most
important points, was determined as follows, viz.:
From a stone at the corner of lot No. 1, in Cumberland, near the
confluence of Will's creek and the north branch of the Potomac river;
thence extending along the street westwardly, to cross the hill lying
between Cumberland and Gwynn's, at the gap where Braddock's road passes
it; thence near Gwynn's and Jesse Tomlinson's, to cross the big
Youghiogheny near the mouth of Roger's run, between the crossing of
Braddock's road and the confluence of the streams which form the Turkey
foot; thence to cross Laurel Hill near the forks of Dunbar's run, to the
west foot of that hill, at a point near where Braddock's old road
reached it, near Gist's old place, now Colonel Isaac Meason's, thence
through Brownsville and Bridgeport, to cross the Monongahela river
below Josias Crawford's ferry; and thence on as straight a course as the
country will admit to the Ohio, at a point between the mouth of Wheeling
creek and the lower point of Wheeling island.
In this direction of the route it will lay about twenty-four and a half
miles in Maryland, seventy-five miles and a half in Pennsylvania, and
twelve miles in Virginia; distances which will be in a small degree
increased by meanders, which the bed of the road must necessarily make
between the points mentioned in the location; and this route, it is
believed, comprehends more important advantages than could be afforded
in any other, inasmuch as it has a capacity at least equal to any other
in extending advantages of a highway, and at the same time establishes
the shortest portage between the points already navigated, and on the
way accommodates other and nearer points to which navigation may be
extended, and still shorten the portage.
It intersects Big Youghiogheny at the nearest point from Cumberland,
then lies nearly parallel with that river for the distance of twenty
miles, and at the west foot of Laurel Hill lies within five miles of
Connellsville, from which the Youghiogheny is navigated; and in the same
direction the route intersects at Brownsville the nearest point on the
Monongahela river within the district.
The improvement of the Youghiogheny navigation is a subject of too much
importance to remain long neglected; and the capacity of that river, as
high up as the falls (twelve miles above Connellsville), is said to be
equal, at a small expense, with the parts already navigated below. The
obstructions at the falls, and a rocky rapid near Turkey Foot,
constitute the principal impediments in that river to the intersection
of the route, and as much higher as the stream has a capacity for
navigation; and these difficulties will doubtless be removed when the
intercourse shall warrant the measure.
Under these circumstances the portage may be thus stated:
From Cumberland to Monongahela, 66-1/2 miles. From Cumberland to a point
in measure with Connellsville, on the Youghiogheny river, 51-1/2 miles.
From Cumberland to a point in measure with the lower end of the falls of
Youghiogheny, which will lie two miles north of the public road, 43
miles. From Cumberland to the intersection of the route with the
Youghiogheny river, 34 miles.
Nothing is here said of the Little Youghiogheny, which lies nearer
Cumberland; the stream being unusually crooked, its navigation can only
become the work of a redundant population.
The point which this route locates, at the west foot of Laurel Hill,
having cleared the whole of the Allegheny mountain, is so situated as to
extend the advantages of an easy way through the great barrier, with
more equal justice to the best parts of the country between Laurel Hill
and the Ohio. Lines from this point to Pittsburg and Morgantown,
diverging nearly at the same angle, open upon equal terms to all parts
of the Western country that can make use of this portage; and which may
include the settlements from Pittsburg, up Big Beaver to the
Connecticut reserve, on Lake Erie, as well as those on the southern
borders of the Ohio and all the intermediate country.
Brownsville is nearly equi-distant from Big Beaver and Fishing creek,
and equally convenient to all the crossing places on the Ohio, between
these extremes. As a port, it is at least equal to any on the
Monongahela within the limits, and holds superior advantages in
furnishing supplies to emigrants, traders, and other travelers by land
or water.
Not unmindful of the claims of towns and their capacity of reciprocating
advantages on public roads, the commissioners were not insensible of the
disadvantage which Uniontown must feel from the want of that
accommodation which a more southwardly direction of the route would have
afforded; but as that could not take place without a relinquishment of
the shortest passage, considerations of public benefit could not yield
to feelings of minor import. Uniontown being the seat of justice for
Fayette county, Pennsylvania, is not without a share of public benefits,
and may partake of the advantages of this portage upon equal terms with
Connellsville, a growing town, with the advantage of respectable
water-works adjoining, in the manufactory of flour and iron.
After reaching the nearest navigation on the western waters, at a point
best calculated to diffuse the benefits of a great highway in the
greatest possible latitude east of the Ohio, it was considered that, to
fulfill the objects of the law, it remained for the commissioners to
give such a direction to the road as would best secure a certainty of
navigation on the Ohio at all seasons, combining, as far as possible,
the inland accommodation of remote points westwardly. It was found that
the obstructions in the Ohio, within the limits between Steubenville and
Grave creek, lay principally above the town and mouth of Wheeling; a
circumstance ascertained by the commissioners in their examination of
the channel, as well as by common usage, which has long given a decided
preference to Wheeling as a place of embarcation and port of departure
in dry seasons. It was also seen that Wheeling lay in a line from
Brownsville to the centre of the State of Ohio and Post Vincennes. These
circumstances favoring and corresponding with the chief objects in view
in this last direction of the route, and the ground from Wheeling
westwardly being known of equal fitness with any other way out from the
river, it was thought most proper, under these several considerations,
to locate the point mentioned below the mouth of Wheeling. In taking
this point in preference to one higher up and in the town of Wheeling,
the public benefit and convenience were consulted, inasmuch as the
present crossing place over the Ohio from the town is so contrived and
confined as to subject passengers to extraordinary ferriage and delay,
by entering and clearing a ferry-boat on each side of Wheeling island,
which lies before the town and precludes the opportunity of fording when
the river is crossed in that way, above and below the island. From the
point located, a safe crossing is afforded at the lower point of the
island by a ferry in high, and a good ford at low water.
The face of the country within the limits prescribed is generally very
uneven, and in many places broken by a succession of high mountains and
deep hollows, too formidable to be reduced within five degrees of the
horizon, but by crossing them obliquely, a mode which, although it
imposes a heavy task of hill-side digging, obviates generally the
necessity of reducing hills and filling hollows, which, on these
grounds, would be an attempt truly Quixotic. This inequality of the
surface is not confined to the Allegheny mountain; the country between
the Monongahela and Ohio rivers, although less elevated, is not better
adapted for the bed of a road, being filled with impediments of hills
and hollows, which present considerable difficulties, and wants that
super-abundance and convenience of stone which is found in the mountain.
The indirect course of the road now traveled, and the frequent
elevations and depressions which occur, that exceed the limits of the
law, preclude the possibility of occupying it in any extent without
great sacrifice of distance, and forbid the use of it, in any one part,
for more than half a mile, or more than two or three miles in the whole.
The expense of rendering the road now in contemplation passable, may,
therefore, amount to a larger sum than may have been supposed necessary,
under an idea of embracing in it a considerable part of the old road;
but it is believed that the contrary will be found most correct, and
that a sum sufficient to open the new could not be expended on the same
distance of the old road with equal benefit.
The sum required for the road in contemplation will depend on the style
and manner of making it; as a common road cannot remove the difficulties
which always exist on deep grounds, and particularly in wet seasons, and
as nothing short of a firm, substantial, well-formed, stone-capped road
can remove the causes which led to the measure of improvement, or render
the institution as commodious as a great and growing intercourse appears
to require, the expense of such a road next becomes the subject of
inquiry.
In this inquiry the commissioners can only form an estimate by recurring
to the experience of Pennsylvania and Maryland in the business of
artificial roads. Upon this data, and a comparison of the grounds and
proximity of the materials for covering, there are reasons for belief
that, on the route reported, a complete road may be made at an expense
not exceeding six thousand dollars per mile, exclusive of bridges over
the principal streams on the way. The average expense of the Lancaster,
as well as Baltimore and Frederick turnpike, is considerably higher; but
it is believed that the convenient supply of stone which the mountain
affords will, on those grounds, reduce the expense to the rate here
stated.
As to the policy of incurring this expense, it is not the province of
the commissioners to declare; but they cannot, however, withhold
assurances of a firm belief that the purse of the nation cannot be more
seasonably opened, or more happily applied, than in promoting the speedy
and effectual establishment of a great and easy road on the way
contemplated.
In the discharge of all these duties, the commissioners have been
actuated by an ardent desire to render the institution as useful and
commodious as possible; and, impressed with a strong sense of the
necessity which urges the speedy establishment of the road, they have to
regret the circumstance which delays the completion of the part assigned
them. They, however, in some measure, content themselves with the
reflection that it will not retard the progress of the work, as the
opening of the road cannot commence before spring, and may then begin
with marking the way.
The extra expense incident to the service from the necessity (and
propriety, as it relates to public economy,) of employing men not
provided for by law, will, it is hoped, be recognized, and provision
made for the payment of that and similar expenses, when in future it may
be indispensably incurred.
The commissioners having engaged in a service in which their zeal did
not permit them to calculate the difference between their pay and the
expense to which the service subjected them, cannot suppose it the wish
or intention of the Government to accept of their services for a mere
indemnification of their expense of subsistence, which will be very much
the case under the present allowance; they, therefore, allow themselves
to hope and expect that measures will be taken to provide such further
compensation as may, under all circumstances, be thought neither profuse
nor parsimonious.
The painful anxiety manifested by the inhabitants of the district
explored, and their general desire to know the route determined on,
suggested the measure of promulgation, which, after some deliberation,
was agreed on by way of circular letter, which has been forwarded to
those persons to whom precaution was useful, and afterward sent to one
of the presses in that quarter for publication, in the form of the
document No. 3, which accompanies this report.
All which is, with due deference, submitted.
ELI WILLIAMS,
THOMAS MOORE,
DECEMBER 30, 1806. JOSEPH KERR.
CHAPTER V.
_Pennsylvania Grants Permission to Make the Road Through Her
Territory--Uniontown Restored, Gist Left Out, and Washington,
Pennsylvania, Made a Point--Simon Snyder, Speaker of the
House--Pressly Carr Lane, a Fayette County Man, Speaker of the
Senate, and Thomas McKean, Governor--A Second Special Message From
President Jefferson, and a Second Report of the
Commissioners--Heights of Mountains and Hills--On to Brownsville
and Wheeling--An Imperious Call Made on Commissioner Kerr._
An Act authorizing the President of the United States to open a road
through that part of this State lying between Cumberland, in the
State of Maryland, and the Ohio river.
WHEREAS, by an Act of the Congress of the United States, passed on the
twenty-ninth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and six, entitled
"An act to regulate the laying out and making a road from Cumberland, in
the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio," the President of the
United States is empowered to lay out a road from the Potomac river to
the river Ohio, and to take measures for making the same, so soon as the
consent of the legislatures of the several States through which the said
road shall pass, could be obtained: And whereas, application hath been
made to this legislature, by the President of the United States, for its
consent to the measures aforesaid: Therefore,
SECTION 1. _Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met, and it is
hereby enacted by the authority of the same_, That the President of the
United States be, and he is hereby authorized to cause so much of the
said road as will be within this State, to be opened so far as it may be
necessary the same should pass through this State, and to cause the said
road to be made, regulated and completed, within the limits, and
according to the intent and meaning of the before recited Act of
Congress in relation thereto; _Provided, nevertheless_, That the route
laid down and reported by the commissioners to the President of the
United States, be so altered as to pass through Uniontown, in the county
of Fayette, and Washington, in the county of Washington, if such
alteration can, in the opinion of the President, be made, consistently
with the provisions of an act of Congress passed March 29th, 1806, but
if not, then over any ground within the limit of this State, which he
may deem most advantageous.
SEC 2. _And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid_, That such
person or persons as are or shall be appointed for the purpose of
laying out and completing the said road, under the authority of the
United States, shall have full power and authority to enter upon the
lands through which the same may pass, and upon any land near or
adjacent thereto, and therefrom to take, dig, cut and carry away such
materials of earth, stone, gravel, timber and sand as may be necessary
for the purpose of completing, and for ever keeping in repair, said
road; _Provided_, That such materials shall be valued and appraised, in
the same manner as materials taken for similar purposes, under the
authority of this Commonwealth are by the laws thereof, directed to be
valued and appraised, and a certificate of the amount thereof shall, by
the person or persons appointed, or hereafter to be appointed under the
authority of the United States for the purpose aforesaid, be delivered
to each party entitled thereto, for any materials to be taken by virtue
of this act, to entitle him, her or them to receive payment therefor
from the United States.
SIMON SNYDER,
_Speaker of the House of Representatives_.
P. C. LANE,
_Speaker of the Senate_.
_Approved, the ninth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and
seven._
THOMAS M'KEAN.
TENTH CONGRESS--FIRST SESSION.
Communicated to Congress February 19, 1808.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
The States of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia having, by their
several acts consented that the road from Cumberland to the State of
Ohio, authorized by the act of Congress of March 29, 1806, should pass
through those States, and the report of the commissioners communicated
to Congress with my message of January 31, 1807, having been duly
considered, I have approved of the route therein proposed for the said
road as far as Brownsville, with a single deviation since located, which
carries it through Uniontown.
From thence the course to the Ohio, and the point within the legal
limits at which it shall strike that river, is still to be decided.
In forming this decision, I shall pay material regard to the interests
and wishes of the populous parts of the State of Ohio, and to a future
and convenient connection with the road which is to lead from the
_Indian_ boundary near Cincinnati, by Vincennes, to the Mississippi, at
St. Louis, under authority of the act of April 21, 1806. In this way we
may accomplish a continuous and advantageous line of communication from
the seat of the General Government to St. Louis, passing through several
very interesting points, to the Western country.
I have thought it advisable, also, to secure from obliteration the trace
of the road so far as it has been approved, which has been executed at
such considerable expense, by opening one-half of its breadth through
its whole length.
The report of the commissioners herewith transmitted will give
particular information of their proceedings under the act of March
29, 1806, since the date of my message of January 31, 1807, and will
enable Congress to adopt such further measures, relative thereto, as
they may deem proper under existing circumstances.
TH. JEFFERSON.
FEBRUARY 19, 1808.
* * * * *
The undersigned, commissioners appointed under the law of the United
States, entitled "An act to regulate the laying out and making a road
from Cumberland, in the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio," in
addition to the communications heretofore made, beg leave further to
report to the President of the United States that, by the delay of the
answer of the Legislature of Pennsylvania to the application for
permission to pass the road through that State, the commissioners could
not proceed to the business of the road in the spring before vegetation
had so far advanced as to render the work of exploring and surveying
difficult and tedious, from which circumstance it was postponed till the
last autumn, when the business was again resumed. That, in obedience to
the special instructions given them, the route heretofore reported has
been so changed as to pass through Uniontown, and that they have
completed the location, gradation and marking of the route from
Cumberland to Brownsville, Bridgeport, and the Monongahela river,
agreeably to a plat of the courses, distances and grades in which is
described the marks and monuments by which the route is designated, and
which is herewith exhibited; that by this plat and measurement it will
appear (when compared with the road now traveled) there is a saving of
four miles of distance between Cumberland and Brownsville on the new
route.
In the gradation of the surface of the route (which became necessary) is
ascertained the comparative elevation and depression of different points
on the route, and taking a point ten feet above the surface of low water
in the Potomac river at Cumberland, as the horizon, the most prominent
points are found to be elevated as follows, viz.:
Feet. 10ths.
Summit of Wills mountain 581 3
Western foot of same 304 4
Summit of Savage mountain 2022 24
Savage river 1741 6
Summit Little Savage mountain 1900 4
Branch Pine Run, first Western water 1699 9
Summit of Red Hill (after called Shades of Death) 1914 3
Summit Little Meadow mountain 2026 16
Little Youghiogheny river 1322 6
East Fork of Shade Run 1558 92
Summit of Negro mountain, highest point 2328 12
Middle branch of White's creek, at the west foot of Negro
mountain 1360 5
White's creek 1195 5
Big Youghiogheny river 645 5
Summit of a ridge between Youghiogheny river and Beaver
waters 1514 5
Beaver Run 1123 8
Summit of Laurel Hill 1550 16
Court House in Uniontown 274 65
A point ten feet above the surface of low water in the
Monongahela river, at the mouth of Dunlap's creek 119 26
The law requiring the commissioners to report those parts of the route
as are laid on the old road, as well as those on new grounds, and to
state those parts which require the most immediate attention and
amelioration, the probable expense of making the same passable in the
most difficult parts, and through the whole distance, they have to state
that, from the crooked and hilly course of the road now traveled, the
new route could not be made to occupy any part of it (except an
intersection on Wills mountain, another at Jesse Tomlinson's, and a
third near Big Youghiogheny, embracing not a mile of distance in the
whole) without unnecessary sacrifices of distances and expense.
That, therefore, an estimate must be made on the route as passing wholly
through new grounds. In doing this the commissioners feel great
difficulty, as they cannot, with any degree of precision, estimate the
expense of making it merely passable; nor can they allow themselves to
suppose that a less breadth than that mentioned in the law was to be
taken into the calculation. The rugged deformity of the grounds rendered
it impossible to lay a route within the grade limited by law otherwise
than by ascending and descending the hills obliquely, by which
circumstance a great proportion of the route occupies the sides of the
hills, which cannot be safely passed on a road of common breadth, and
where it will, in the opinion of the commissioners, be necessary, by
digging, to give the proper form to thirty feet, at least in the breadth
of the road, to afford suitable security in passing on a way to be
frequently crowded with wagons moving in opposite directions, with
transports of emigrant families, and droves of cattle, hogs, etc., on
the way to market. Considering, therefore, that a road on those grounds
must have sufficient breadth to afford ways and water courses, and
satisfied that nothing short of well constructed and completely finished
conduits can insure it against injuries, which must otherwise render it
impassable at every change of the seasons, by heavy falls of rain or
melting of the beds of snow, with which the country is frequently
covered; the commissioners beg leave to say, that, in a former report,
they estimated the expense of a road on these grounds, when properly
shaped, made and finished in the style of a stone-covered turnpike, at
$6,000 per mile, exclusive of bridges over the principal streams on the
way; and that with all the information they have since been able to
collect, they have no reason to make any alteration in that estimate.
The contracts authorized by, and which have been taken under the
superintendence of the commissioner, Thomas Moore (duplicates of which
accompany this report), will show what has been undertaken relative to
clearing the timber and brush from part of the breadth of the road. The
performance of these contracts was in such forwardness on the 1st
instant as leaves no doubt of their being completely fulfilled by the
first of March.
The commissioners further state, that, to aid them in the extension of
their route, they ran and marked a straight line from the crossing place
on the Monongahela, to Wheeling, and had progressed twenty miles, with
their usual and necessary lines of experiment, in ascertaining the
shortest and best connection of practical grounds, when the approach of
winter and the shortness of the days afforded no expectation that they
could complete the location without a needless expense in the most
inclement season of the year. And, presuming that the postponement of
the remaining part till the ensuing spring would produce no delay in the
business of making the road, they were induced to retire from it for the
present.
The great length of time already employed in this business, makes it
proper for the commissioners to observe that, in order to connect the
best grounds with that circumspection which the importance of the duties
confided to them demanded, it became indispensably necessary to run
lines of experiment and reference in various directions, which exceed an
average of four times the distance located for the route, and that,
through a country so irregularly broken, and crowded with very thick
underwood in many places, the work has been found so incalculably
tedious that, without an adequate idea of the difficulty, it is not easy
to reconcile the delay.
It is proper to mention that an imperious call from the private concerns
of Commissioner Joseph Kerr, compelled him to return home on the 29th of
November, which will account for the want of his signature to this
report.
All of which is, with due deference, submitted, this 15th day of
January, 1808.
ELI WILLIAMS,
THOMAS MOORE.
NOTE.--It will be observed that Keyser's Ridge, which is unquestionably
the highest point on the road, is not mentioned by the commissioners.
This is, no doubt, because, at the date of their report, the locality
did not bear the name Keyser's Ridge, and was known as a peak of Negro
mountain. Soon after the location of the road, one Keyser acquired the
property at the ridge, and it took its name from him. It will also be
observed that the measurement of heights by the commissioners was made
from "a point ten feet above the surface of low water in the Potomac at
Cumberland." A table of heights given in a subsequent chapter, the
authority for which is not ascertainable, differs from that in the
commissioners' report, but their report must be accepted as accurate
from their point of measurement. The other table referred to gives the
heights above the Atlantic and above Cumberland, and embraces more hills
than the commissioners' report.
CHAPTER VI.
_Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, called upon for
Information respecting the Fund Applicable to the Roads mentioned
in the Ohio Admission Act--His Responses._
TENTH CONGRESS--FIRST SESSION.
Communicated to the House of Representatives March 8, 1808.
TREASURY DEPARTMENT. March 3, 1808.
_Sir_: In answer to your letter of the 1st instant, I have the honor
to state:
1st. That the 5 per cent. reserved by the act of 30th April, 1802,
on the net moneys received for public lands in the State of Ohio, sold
since 1st July, 1802, has amounted to the following sums, viz:
From 1st July, 1802, to 30th June, 1803 $ 6,220 00
From 1st July, 1803, to 30th June, 1804 8,810 17
From 1st July, 1804, to 30th June, 1805 13,994 30
From 1st July, 1805, to 30th June, 1806 31,442 20
From 1st July, 1806, to 30th June, 1807 28,827 92
From 1st July, 1807, to 31st December, 1807 (estimated) 15,000 00
-----------
$104,294 59
And that the said 5 per cent. will henceforth probably amount to
$30,000 a year.
2d. That, of the $30,000 appropriated by act of 29th March, 1806, there
has been expended, in laying out the Cumberland road from Cumberland to
Brownsville, about $10,000
That there may be wanted to complete the location, about 5,000
-------
$15,000
3d. That contracts have been made for opening one-half of the breadth of
said road, which, as verbally informed by one of the commissioners, will
require about $3,000, leaving, probably, about $12,000 of the
appropriation for the further improvement of the road.
4th. That the portion of the road actually located and confirmed, no
part of which exceeds an angle of five degrees, extends from the
navigable waters of the Potomac, at Cumberland, to the navigable waters
of the Monongahela, at Brownsville (Red Stone Old Fort), and it is
stated, though no official report has been made to me, at about seventy
miles.
5th. That that road can be considered as a national object only if
completed as a turnpike, whereby all the flour and other produce of the
western adjacent countries may be brought to a market on the Atlantic
shores; and the transportation of all the salt and other commodities and
merchandise whatever, imported from the Atlantic ports to the western
country generally, may be reduced probably one dollar per cwt.
And, Lastly, that the expense of completing that part of the road in
such manner, is estimated at $400,000.
I have the honor to be, respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,
ALBERT GALLATIN.
Hon. John Montgomery, of Maryland, Chairman, etc., in Congress.
COMMITTEE ROOM, Dec. 22, 1808.
_Sir_: The committee appointed on the message of the President,
transmitting a report of the commissioners concerning a road from
Cumberland to Ohio, have directed me to request that you would cause to
be laid before them such information as may be in possession of the
Treasury Department respecting the fund applicable by law to "the laying
out and making public roads leading from the navigable waters emptying
into the Atlantic, to the Ohio," etc. (1) The unexpended balance of the
$30,000 appropriated by the act of the 29th of March, 1806; (2) The
amount of moneys, exclusive of the above, now in the treasury, and in
the hands of the receiver of public moneys, applicable to that object;
and (3) an estimate of the probable amount of moneys that will accrue to
the fund within the two succeeding years.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,
JEREMIAH MORROW.
To the Hon. Secretary of the Treasury.
TENTH CONGRESS--SECOND SESSION.
_Cumberland Road._
Communicated to the House of Representatives, February 16, 1809.
TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Dec. 29, 1808.
_Sir_: In answer to your letter of the 22d instant. I have the honor
to state, for the information of the committee:
1st. That the unexpended balance of the appropriation, made by the act
of March 29, 1806, for opening a road from Cumberland, on the Potomac,
to the river Ohio, amounts to $16,075.15; part of which sum will
probably be wanted in order to complete the location and opening of the
road. It is probable that about $13,000 will remain applicable to making
the road.
2dly. That the total amount received, either at the treasury, or by the
receivers of public moneys on account of roads, and calculated at the
rate of 5 per cent, of the net proceeds of the sales of lands in the
State of Ohio, subsequent to the 30th day of June, 1802, was, on
the 30th day of September last $104,692
leaving, if that mode of calculating be correct, and after
deducting the sum appropriated by the above mentioned act 30,000
--------
a sum applicable to the road of $ 74,692
in addition to the above mentioned unexpended balance of 16,075
--------
and making together a sum of $ 90,767
But if the amount applicable to roads be calculated at the
rate of 2 per cent. only, on the net proceeds of the sales of
lands, this will, on the 30th of September last, have produced
only $ 41,876
from which, deducting the appropriation of 30,000
--------
leaves an unappropriated balance of $ 11,876
which, added to the unexpended balance of the appropriation 16,075
--------
makes an aggregate of only $ 27,951
3dly. That the probable receipts on account of that fund may, for the
two ensuing years, be estimated at $22,500 a year, if calculated at the
rate of 5 per cent., and at $9,000 a year, if calculated at the rate of
2 per cent. on the sales of lands.
I have the honor to be, respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,
ALBERT GALLATIN.
Hon. Jeremiah Morrow, Chairman of the Land Committee.
P.S.--Amount of the 2 per cent. of the net proceeds of the lands
within the State of Ohio:
From 1st July, 1802, to 30th June, 1803, 2 per cent. $ 2,400.00
From 1st July, 1803, to 30th June, 1804, 2 per cent. 3,524.06
From 1st July, 1804, to 30th June, 1805, 2 per cent. 5,597.72
From 1st July, 1805, to 30th June, 1806, 2 per cent. 11,243.55
From 1st July, 1806, to 30th June, 1807, 2 per cent. 9,120.75
From 1st July, 1807, to 30th June, 1808, 2 per cent. 9,902.80
Estimated July, 1808, to 31st October, 1808, 2 per cent. 2,815.60
----------
Total $44,692.48
The sum of $30,000 appropriated per act of 29th of March to be
paid therefrom; of which $13,924.85 seems to have been paid.
A. G.
CHAPTER VII.
_The Life of the Road Threatened by the Spectre of a Constitutional
Cavil--President Monroe Vetoes a Bill for its Preservation and
Repair--General Jackson has Misgivings--Hon. Andrew Stewart comes
to the Rescue._
SPECIAL MESSAGE.
MAY 4, 1822.
_To the House of Representatives_:
Having duly considered the bill, entitled "An act for the preservation
and repair of the Cumberland Road," it is with deep regret (APPROVING,
AS I DO, THE POLICY), that I am compelled to object to its passage, and
to return the bill to the House of Representatives, in which it
originated, under a conviction that Congress do not possess the power,
under the Constitution, to pass such a law. A power to establish
turnpikes, with gates and tolls, and to enforce the collection of the
tolls by penalties, implies a power to adopt and execute a complete
system of internal improvements. A right to impose duties to be paid by
all persons passing a certain road, and on horses and carriages, as is
done by this bill, involves the right to take the land from the
proprietor on a valuation, and to pass laws for the protection of the
road from injuries; and if it exist, as to one road, it exists as to any
other, and to as many roads as Congress may think proper to establish. A
right to legislate for one of these purposes, is a right to legislate
for the others. It is a complete right of jurisdiction and sovereignty
for all the purposes of internal improvement, and not merely the right
of applying money under the power vested in Congress to make
appropriations (under which power, with the consent of the States
through which the road passes, the work was originally commenced, and
has been so far executed). I am of opinion that Congress do not possess
this power--that the States individually cannot grant it; for, although
they may assent to the appropriation of money within their limits for
such purposes, they can grant no power of jurisdiction of sovereignty,
by special compacts with the United States. This power can be granted
only by an amendment to the Constitution, and in the mode prescribed by
it. If the power exist, it must be either because it has been
specifically granted to the United States, or that it is incidental to
some power, which has been specifically granted. If we examine the
specific grants of power, we do not find it among them, nor is it
incidental to any power which has been specifically granted. It has
never been contended that the power was specifically granted. It is
claimed only as being incidental to some one or more of the powers
which are specifically granted. The following are the powers from which
it is said to be derived: (1) From the right to establish post offices
and post roads; (2) From the right to declare war; (3) To regulate
commerce; (4) To pay the debts and provide for the common defence and
general welfare; (5) From the power to make all laws necessary and
proper for carrying into execution all the powers vested by the
Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any
department or officer thereof; (6) And lastly, from the power to dispose
of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory
and other property of the United States. According to my judgment, it
cannot be derived from either of these powers, nor from all of them
united, and in consequence it does not exist. Having stated my
objections to the bill, I should now cheerfully communicate at large the
reasons on which they are founded, if I had time to reduce them to such
form as to include them in this paper. The advanced stage of the session
renders that impossible. Having, at the commencement of my service in
this high trust, considered it a duty to express the opinion that the
United States do not possess the power in question, and to suggest for
the consideration of Congress the propriety of recommending to the
States an amendment to the Constitution, to vest the power in the United
States, my attention has been often drawn to the subject since, in
consequence whereof, I have occasionally committed my sentiments to
paper respecting it. The form which this exposition has assumed is not
such as I should have given it had it been intended for Congress, nor is
it concluded. Nevertheless, as it contains my views on this subject,
being one which I deem of very high importance, and which, in many of
its bearings, has now become peculiarly urgent, I will communicate it to
Congress, if in my power, in the course of the day, or certainly on
Monday next.
JAMES MONROE.
General Jackson, in his famous veto of the Maysville Road bill (May 27,
1830), refers to the Cumberland Road, and to the above message of
President Monroe, in the following terms;
"In the administration of Mr. Jefferson we have two examples of the
exercise of the right of appropriation, which, in the consideration that
led to their adoption, and in their effects upon the public mind, have
had a greater agency in marking the character of the power than any
subsequent events. I allude to the payment of fifteen millions of
dollars for the purchase of Louisiana, and to the ORIGINAL APPROPRIATION
FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CUMBERLAND ROAD; the latter act deriving
much weight from the acquiescence and approbation of three of the most
powerful of the original members of the confederacy, expressed through
their respective legislatures. Although the circumstances of the LATTER
CASE may be such as to deprive so much of it as relates to the actual
construction of the road of the force of an obligatory exposition of the
Constitution, it must nevertheless be admitted that so far as the mere
appropriation of money is concerned, they present the principle in its
most imposing aspect. No less than twenty-three different laws have been
passed through all the forms of the Constitution, appropriating upwards
of two millions and a half of dollars out of the national treasury in
support of that improvement, with the approbation of every president of
the United States, including my predecessor, since its commencement. The
views of Mr. Monroe upon this subject were not left to inference. During
his administration, a bill was passed through both houses of Congress,
conferring the jurisdiction and prescribing the mode by which the
federal government should exercise it in the case of THE CUMBERLAND
ROAD. He returned it with objections to its passage, and in assigning
them, took occasion to say that in the early stages of the government he
had inclined to the construction that it had no right to expend money
except in the performance of acts authorized by the other specific
grants of power, according to a strict construction of them; but that on
further reflection and observation his mind had undergone a change; that
his opinion then was: 'that Congress had an unlimited power to raise
money, and that in its appropriation they have a discretionary power,
restricted only by the duty to appropriate it to purposes of common
defence and of general, not local, National, not State benefit;' and
this was avowed to be the governing principle through the residue of his
administration."
[Illustration: HON. ANDREW STEWART.]
On the 27th of January, 1829, the Hon. Andrew Stewart, of Pennsylvania,
in a vigorous speech on the floor of Congress, repelled the proposition
that the general government was lacking in power and authority to make
and preserve the road, from which the following extracts are taken:
"Mr. Stewart expressed his regret that gentlemen had deemed this a fit
occasion to draw into discussion all the topics connected with the
general power over the subject of internal improvements. If repeated
decisions, and the uniform practice of the government could settle any
question, this, he thought, ought to be regarded as settled. The
foundation of this road (the National or Cumberland) was laid by a
report made by Mr. Giles, the present Governor of Virginia, in 1802, and
was sanctioned the next session by a similar report, made by another
distinguished Virginian (Mr. Randolph), now a member of this House--it
was the offspring of Virginia, and he hoped she would not now abandon it
as illegitimate. Commenced under the administration of Mr. Jefferson, it
had been sanctioned and prosecuted by every president, and by almost
every Congress, for more than a quarter of a century.* * * *
"Without roads and canals, of what avail was it to the people of the
West to possess a country, abounding with all the essential elements of
wealth and prosperity--of what avail was it to have a country abounding
with inexhaustible mines of coal and ore; to possess a fruitful soil and
abundant harvests, without the means of transporting them to the places
where they were required for consumption? Without a market, the people
of the West were left without a motive for industry. By denying to
this portion of the Union the advantages of internal improvements, you
not only deprive them of all the benefits of governmental expenditures,
but you also deprive them of the advantages which nature's God intended
for them. Possessing the power, how, he asked, could any representative
of the interior or western portions of this Union vote against a policy
so essential to the prosperity of the people who sent him here to guard
their rights, and advance their interests? * * * *
"The right of this government to construct such roads and canals as were
necessary to carry into effect its mail, military, and commercial
powers, was as clear and undoubted as the right to build a post office,
construct a fort, or erect a lighthouse. In every point of view the
cases were precisely similar, and were sustained and justified by the
same power." * * * *
The power, said Mr. S., "to establish post offices and post roads,"
involves the power and duty of transporting the mail, and of employing
all the means necessary for this purpose. The simple question, then, was
this: Are roads necessary to carry the mail? If they were, Congress had
expressly the right to make them, and there was an end to the question.
Roads were, he contended, not only necessary to carry into effect this
power, but they were absolutely and indispensably necessary; you cannot
get along without them, and yet we are gravely told that Congress have
no right to make a mail road, or repair it when made! That to do so
would ruin the States and produce consolidation--ruin the States by
constructing good roads for their use and benefit; produce consolidation
by connecting the distant parts of the Union by cheap and rapid modes of
inter-communication. If consolidation meant to confirm and perpetuate
the Union, he would admit its application, but not otherwise. But we are
told that the _States_ will make roads to carry the mails. This was
begging the question. If the States would make all the roads required to
carry into effect our powers, very well; but if they did not, then we
may undoubtedly make them ourselves. But it was never designed by the
framers of the Constitution that this government should be dependent on
the States for the means of executing its powers: "its means were
adequate to its ends." This principle was distinctly and unanimously
laid down by the Supreme Court in the case already referred to: "No
trace," says the Chief Justice, "is to be found in the Constitution of
an intention to create a dependence of the government of the Union on
the States for the execution of the powers assigned to it--its means are
adequate to its ends. To impose on it the necessity of resorting to
means it cannot control, which another government may furnish or
withhold, would render its course precarious, the result of its measures
uncertain, and create a dependence on other governments, which might
disappoint the most important designs, and is incompatible with the
language of the Constitution." And this was in perfect harmony with the
constant and uniform practice of the government. * * *
Mr. S. begged gentlemen to turn their attention for a moment to the
statute book, and see what the practice of the government had been; what
had been already done by Congress in virtue of this power of
"establishing post offices and post roads." In 1825 an act had been
passed, without a word of objection, which went infinitely further than
the bill under consideration. His colleague (Mr. Buchanan) was then a
member of this House, and, no doubt, voted for it. His eloquence was
then mute--we heard nothing about States rights, spectres, and sedition
laws. This bill, regulating the post office establishment, not only
created some thirty or forty highly penal offences, extending not only
over the Cumberland Road, but over every other road in the United
States, punishing with severest sanctions, even to the taking away the
liberty and the lives of the citizens of the States, and requiring the
State courts to take cognizance of these offences and inflict these
punishments. This was not all: this act not only extended over all the
mail roads, but all other roads running parallel with them, on which all
persons are prohibited, under a penalty of fifty dollars, from carrying
letters in stages or other vehicles performing regular trips; and
authorizing, too, the seizure and sale of any property found in them for
the payment of the fines. The same regulations applied to boats and
vessels passing from one town to another. Compare that bill with the one
under debate. This bill had two or three trifling penalties of ten
dollars, and was confined to one road of about one hundred and fifty
miles in extent, made by the United States, while the other act, with
all its fines and forfeitures, pains and penalties, extended not only to
all the mail roads in the United States, but also to all parallel roads;
yet no complaint was then heard about the constitutionality of this law,
or the dreadful consequences of carrying the citizens hundreds of miles
to be tried. Under it no difficulties had ever been experienced, and no
complaint had ever been heard. There had been no occasion for appointing
United States Justices and creating federal courts to carry this law
into effect, about which there was so much declamation on this occasion:
this was truly choking at gnats and swallowing camels. To take away
_life_ by virtue of the post office power for robbing the mail, is
nothing; but to impose a fine of ten dollars for wilfully destroying a
road which has cost the government a million of dollars, is a dreadful
violation of State rights! An unheard of usurpation, worse than the
sedition law; and went further towards a dissolution of the Union than
any other act of the government. Such were the declarations of his
colleague; he hoped he would be able to give some reason for thus
denouncing this bill, after voting for the act of 1825, which carried
this same power a hundred times further than this bill, both as regards
the theatre of its operations, and the extent of its punishments.
* * * * *
Having thus established, and, as he thought, conclusively, the right to
construct roads and canals for mail and military purposes, he came next
to say a few words on the subject of those which appertained to the
express power of "regulating commerce with foreign nations and _among
the several States_." This power carried with it, as a necessary
incident, the right to construct commercial roads and canals. From this
grant Congress derived exactly the same power to make roads and canals
that it did sea-walls, light-houses, buoys, beacons, etc., along the
seaboard. If the power existed over the one it existed over the other in
every point of view; the cases were precisely parallel; it was
impossible to draw a distinction between them. This power was essential
to every government--there was no government under the sun without it.
All writers on national law and political economy considered the right
to construct roads and canals as belonging to the commercial power of
all governments. * * *
There were great arteries of communication between distant divisions of
this extensive empire, passing through many States or bordering upon
them, which the States never could and never would make. These works
were emphatically national, and ought to be accomplished by national
means.
He instanced the road now under consideration--it passed through
Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, yet neither of these States would
have given a dollar to make it. It passed mostly through mountainous and
uninhabited regions. He adverted to the Potomac, Ohio, and Mississippi
rivers. Important as these were to all the States, yet they were the
internal concerns of none--they were mere boundaries to which the States
would give nothing, while they had so many objects exclusively internal
requiring all their means. For these reasons he was utterly opposed to
the project of dividing the surplus revenue of the general government
among the several States; this would be to surrender the national means
which the people had confided to this purpose to mere local and
sectional objects, while those truly national would remain forever
unprovided for. He did not claim for this government the power to make
roads and canals for all purposes. The powers of this government and of
the States were distinct and well defined. To the national government
belonged, under the Constitution, the power of making national roads and
canals for national purposes. To the States belonged the power of
providing for state and local objects. The roads and canals projected
and executed by the States and private companies were often highly
important in a national point of view; and to such, in his opinion, this
government ought always to afford aid in a proportion corresponding with
the interest the nation had in their accomplishment. When individuals
were willing to go before and vest millions of their private funds in
works strictly and truly national, connecting the remote sections of the
Union together (of which we had two distinct examples, one in this
district and the other in a neighboring city, Baltimore), could this
government, charged with the care and guardianship of all the great
interests of the nation, look on with cold indifference? Was it not our
duty to lend a helping hand to encourage, to cheer, and to sustain them
in their noble and patriotic efforts? * * * *
Mr. Stewart said he would now proceed to answer, as briefly as possible,
some leading arguments urged by gentlemen in opposition to the bill
under consideration. His colleague (Mr. Buchanan) had said that this
bill proposed a greater stretch of power than the sedition law. This was
an argument "ad captandum vulgus." He would not do his colleague the
injustice to suppose that he was so ignorant of the Constitution of his
country as seriously to address such an argument to the understanding of
this House. The bill under consideration was necessary to carry into
effect the express power of transporting the mail. What power of this
government was the sedition law intended to carry into effect? None. It
was therefore not only clearly unconstitutional on this ground, but it
went directly to abridge the freedom of the press, and, of course, was a
plain and palpable violation of that provision in the Constitution,
which declares that "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of
speech or of the press." Now, if his colleague could show any provision
in the Constitution in the slightest degree impugning the right of
Congress to pass this bill, then he might have some excuse for offering
such an argument, otherwise he had none. The gentleman had, in a very
labored effort, endeavored to prove that this government had no kind of
jurisdiction or control whatever over this road. Yet his own amendment
recognized the existence of the very power which he denies. By his
amendment he proposes what? That this government shall cede the roads to
the States, with the power to erect gates and collect as much toll as
was necessary to keep it in repair. But his whole argument went to prove
that Congress did not possess the very power which his amendment assumed
and proposed to the States. The gentleman's amendment, and his speech
therefore, were at open war with each other, and would perhaps both
perish in the conflict. Certainly, both could not survive--one or the
other must fall.
The gentleman, proceeding in his argument, had assumed premises which
nobody would admit, and then, with an air of great triumph, he drew
conclusions which even his own premises would not support. He takes for
granted that this government, with all its mail, military, and
commercial powers, has no more right to make a road to carry these
powers into effect, through a State, than any individual possessing none
of these powers would have. Thus, having assumed what was utterly
inadmissible, he triumphantly inquires whether an individual, having
obtained leave to make a road through another's land, could put up gates
and exact toll? The gentleman says, surely not. But he said, surely yes,
unless expressly prohibited by the contract. Suppose, by permission, I
build a mill, said Mr. S., upon that gentleman's estate, and construct a
bridge and turnpike road to get to it, have not I as much right to
demand toll at the bridge as at the mill? Most undoubtedly; so that the
gentleman's premises and his conclusions were alike fallacious and
unsound. This position had been taken by both the gentlemen from
Virginia (Mr. Barbour and Mr. Archer), to whom he would make the same
reply. A most extraordinary argument had been advanced against military
roads: the public enemy may get possession of them in war!! Was it
possible that an American statesman could, at this time of day, urge
such an argument? It might be addressed to a set of timid savages,
secure in the midst of the wilderness. The enemy get possession of our
roads, and therefore not make them! Such cowardly arguments would
deprive us of every possible means of defence. The enemy, it might be
said with equal propriety, may get our ships, our forts, our cannon, our
soldiers, and therefore we ought not to provide them. What would the
brave freemen of this country say to the men who would deny them roads
to travel on, lest the enemy might take them from us in war? They would
reply, with Spartan magnanimity, "Let them come and take them." * * *