In this vast undertaking coöperation of all kinds is needed, and it will be rewarded too. Capitalists, bankers, merchants, engineers, mechanics, miners, laborers, all must enlist. Perhaps there will be a place also for the freedmen of this war, although it seems to me that their services can be more effectively bestowed at home, as laborers and soldiers. But I see not why emigrants should not be invited from Europe to take part in this honorable service, and share the prosperity it will surely organize. Let them quit poverty, dependence, and wretchedness in their own country, for good wages here, with independence, and a piece of ground which each man can call his own.
Emigration will hasten the work; but, with or without emigration, it must proceed. Everywhere, from sunrise to sunset, the Rail and Wheel, which an eminent English engineer has pronounced “man and wife,” will yet be welcomed, sure to become the parents of a mighty progeny.
I have the honor to be, Gentlemen,
Your faithful servant,
Charles Sumner.
Messrs. Samuel Hallett & Co.
UNION OF THE MISSISSIPPI AND THE LAKES BY CANAL.
Letter to a Convention at Chicago, May 27, 1863.