Life and Times of Washington, Volume 2 / Revised, Enlarged, and Enriched

by John Frederick Schroeder; Benson John Lossing

It is a very interesting fact that Washington was among the first, if not the very first of our public men, who were impressed with the importance of connecting the western with the eastern territory, by facilitating the means of intercourse between them. To this subject his attention had been directed in the early part of his life. While the American States were yet British colonies he had obtained the passage of a bill for opening the Potomac so as to render it navigable from tide-water to Wills creek, a distance of about 150 miles. The river James had also been comprehended in this plan, and he had triumphed so far over the opposition produced by local interests and prejudices, that the business was in a train which promised success, when the Revolutionary War diverted the attention of its patrons, and of all America, from internal improvements to the still greater objects of liberty and independence. As that war approached its termination, subjects which for a time had yielded their pretensions to consideration, reclaimed that place to which their real magnitude entitled them, and internal navigation again attracted the attention of the wise and thinking part of society. Accustomed to contemplate America as his country and to consider with solicitude the interests of the whole, Washington now took a more enlarged view of the advantages to be derived from opening both the eastern and the western waters; and for this, as well as for other purposes, after peace had been proclaimed, he traversed the western parts of New England and New York. "I have lately," said he, in a letter to the Marquis of Chastellux, "made a tour through the lakes George and Champlain as far as Crown Point; then returning to Schenectady I proceeded up the Mohawk river to Fort Schuyler, crossed over to Wood creek, which empties into the Oneida lake and affords the water communication with Ontario. I then traversed the country to the head of the eastern branch of the Susquehanna and viewed the lake Otsego and the portage between that lake and the Mohawk river at Canajoharie. Prompted by these actual observations, I could not help taking a more contemplative and extensive view of the vast inland navigation of these United States, and could not but be struck with the immense diffusion and importance of it, and with the goodness of that Providence which has dealt His favors to us with so profuse a hand. Would to God we may have wisdom enough to improve them. I shall not rest contented until I have explored the western country and traversed those lines (or great part of them) which have given bounds to a new empire." The journey here referred to was performed in company with Governor Clinton while the army was encamped at Newburg.

Scarcely had he answered those spontaneous offerings of the heart which flowed in upon him from every part of a grateful nation, when his views were once more seriously turned to this truly interesting subject. Its magnitude was also impressed on others, and the value of obtaining the aid which his influence and active interference would afford to any exertions for giving this direction to the public mind, and for securing the happy execution of the plan which might be devised, was perceived by all those who attached to the great work its real importance. Jefferson, who had taken an expanded view of it concluded a letter to Washington containing a detailed statement of his ideas on the subject in these terms:

"But a most powerful objection always arises to propositions of this kind. It is, that public undertakings are carelessly managed and much money spent to little purpose. To obviate this objection is the purpose of my giving you the trouble of this discussion. You have retired from public life. You have weighed this determination, and it would be impertinence in me to touch it. But would the superintendence of this work break in too much on the sweets of retirement and repose? If they would I stop here. Your future time and wishes are sacred in my eye. If it would be only a dignified amusement to you, what a monument of your retirement would it be! It is one which would follow that of your public life and bespeak it the work of the same great hand. I am confident that would you, either alone or jointly with any persons you think proper, be willing to direct this business, it would remove the only objection, the weight of which I apprehend."

In September, 1784, Washington fulfilled the intention expressed in his letter to the Marquis of Chastellux, by making a tour to the western country. He went on horseback, using pack-horses for his tent and baggage. He crossed the Alleghenies by Braddock's road, examined his lands on the Monongahela river, and returned through the wilderness by a circuitous route, examining the country in order to determine the practicability of connecting the Potomac and James rivers with the western waters by means of canals. The whole journey extended some 680 miles. {3}

After returning from this tour Washington's first moments of leisure were devoted to the task of engaging his countrymen in a work which appeared to him to merit still more attention from its political than from its commercial influence on the Union. In a long and interesting letter to Mr. Harrison then Governor of Virginia, he detailed the advantages which might be derived from opening the great rivers, the Potomac and the James, as high as should be practicable. After stating, with his accustomed exactness, the distances and the difficulties to be surmounted in bringing the trade of the west to different points on the Atlantic, he expressed unequivocally the opinion that the rivers of Virginia afforded a more convenient and a more direct course than could be found elsewhere for that rich and increasing commerce. This was strongly urged as a motive for immediately commencing the work. But the rivers of the Atlantic constituted only a part of the great plan he contemplated. He suggested the appointment of commissioners who should, after an accurate examination of the James and the Potomac, search out the nearest and best portages between those waters and the streams which run into the Ohio. Those streams were to be accurately surveyed, the impediments to their navigation ascertained, and their relative advantages examined. The navigable waters west of the Ohio toward the great lakes were also to be traced to their sources and those which emptied into the lakes to be followed to their mouths. "These things being done, and an accurate map of the whole presented to the public, he was persuaded that reason would dictate what was right and proper." For the execution of this latter part of his plan he had also much reliance on Congress, and, in addition to the general advantages to be drawn from the measure, he labored in his letters to the members of that body to establish the opinion that the surveys he recommended would add to the revenue by enhancing the value of the lands offered for sale. "Nature," he said, "had made such an ample display of her bounties in those regions that the more the country was explored the more it would rise in estimation."

The assent and cooperation of Maryland being indispensable to the improvement of the Potomac, he was equally earnest in his endeavors to impress a conviction of its superior advantages on those individuals who possessed most influence in that State. In doing so he detailed the measures which would unquestionably be adopted by New York and Pennsylvania for acquiring the monopoly of the western commerce, and the difficulty which would be found in diverting it from the channel it had once taken. "I am not," he added, "for discouraging the exertions of any State to draw the commerce of the western country to its seaports. The more communications we open to it the closer we bind that rising world (for indeed it may be so called) to our interests, and the greater strength shall we acquire by it. Those to whom nature affords the best communication will, if they are wise, enjoy the greatest share of the trade. All I would be understood to mean, therefore, is, that the gifts of Providence may not be neglected."

But the light in which this subject would be viewed with most interest and which gave to it most importance, was its political influence on the Union. "I need not remark to you, sir," said he, in his letter to Governor Harrison of Virginia, "that the flanks and rear of the United States are possessed by other powers—and formidable ones, too: nor need I press the necessity of applying the cement of interest to bind all parts of the Union together by indissoluble bonds—especially of binding that part of it which lies immediately west of us to the middle States. For what ties, let me ask, should we have upon those people? How entirely unconnected with them shall we be, and what troubles may we not apprehend if the Spaniards on their right and Great Britain on their left, instead of throwing impediments in their way as they now do, should hold out lures for their trade and alliance? When they get strength, which will be sooner than most people conceive, what will be the consequence of their having formed close commercial connections with both or either of those powers, it needs not, in my opinion, the gift of prophecy to foretell."

This idea was enlarged and pressed with much earnestness in his letters to several members of Congress.

The letter to Governor Harrison was communicated to the Assembly of Virginia, and the internal improvements it recommended were zealously supported by the wisest members of that body. While the subject remained undecided, Washington, accompanied by Lafayette, who had crossed the Atlantic and had arrived at Mount Vernon on the 17th of August, paid a visit to the capital of the State. Never was reception more cordial or more demonstrative of respect and affection than was given to these beloved personages. But amidst the display of addresses and of entertainments which were produced by the occasion, the great business of internal improvements was not forgotten, and the ardor of the moment was seized to conquer those objections to the plan which yet lingered in the bosoms of members who could perceive in it no future advantage to compensate for the present expense.

An exact conformity between the acts of Virginia and of Maryland being indispensable to the improvement of the Potomac, a resolution was passed soon after the return of Washington to Mount Vernon, requesting him to attend the Legislature of Maryland, in order to agree on a bill which might receive the sanction of both States. This agreement being happily completed, the bills were passed, and thus began that grand system of internal improvement by which the eastern portion of the Union is bound to the west. Canals and portages were the forerunners of the railroads by which every part of the country is now traversed, and the whole Republic is firmly united in bonds of mutual intercourse, which, it is fondly hoped will prove perpetual.