HON. T. M. T. McKENNAN.
[CHAPTER XV.]
Speech of Hon. T. M. T. McKennan, delivered in Congress, June 6, 1832—The Road a Monument of National Wealth and Greatness—A Bond of Union—Business of the Road—Five Thousand Wagons unload in Wheeling in a single year—Facilities afforded by the Road for transporting the Mails and Munitions of War.
This road, Mr. Speaker (the National Road), is a magnificent one—magnificent in extent; it traverses seven different States of this Union, and its whole distance will cover an extent of near eight hundred miles. Magnificent in the difficulties overcome by the wealth of a nation, and in the benefits and advantages and blessings which it diffuses, east and west, far and wide, through the whole country. It is, sir, a splendid monument of national wealth and national greatness, and of the deep interest felt by the government in the wealth and prosperity and happiness of the people.
It is not, sir, like the stupendous monuments of other countries and of other times, which have been erected merely for the purpose of show and of gratifying the pride of some despotic monarch; but this and all similar national improvements are works of utility; they tend to cement the bond of union; they bring together the distant parts of this exalted republic; they diffuse wealth and happiness among a free people, and will be a source of never failing prosperity to millions yet unborn.
It is, sir, a great commercial, military, mail, national work. To give the House, or those of its members who are unacquainted with the fact, some idea of the immense commercial advantages which the eastern as well as the western country has derived from the construction of this road, let me call their attention to the amount of merchandise transported to the Ohio river in a single year after its completion; and here, sir, I avail myself of an estimate made by an honorable member of the other House on another occasion, when he strongly urged the propriety and importance of the extension of the road through the State of Ohio.