In the year 1822, shortly after the completion of the road, a single house in the town of Wheeling unloaded 1,081 wagons, averaging about 3,500 pounds each, and paid for the carriage of the goods $90,000. At that time there were five other commission houses in the same place, and estimating that each of them received two-thirds the amount of goods consigned to the other, there must have been nearly 5,000 wagons unloaded, and nearly $400,000 paid as the cost of transportation. But, further, it is estimated that at least every tenth wagon passed through that place into the interior of Ohio, Indiana, &c., which would considerably swell the amount. These wagons take their return loads and carry to the eastern markets all the various articles of production and manufacture of the West—their flour, whisky, hemp, tobacco, bacon, and wool. Since this estimate was made, the town of Wheeling is greatly enlarged; its population has nearly doubled; the number of its commercial establishments has greatly increased; and the demand for merchandise in the West has increased with the wealth and improvement and prosperity of the country.
But, further, sir, before the completion of this road, from four to six weeks were usually occupied in the transportation of goods from Baltimore to the Ohio river, and the price varied from six to ten dollars per hundred. Now they can be carried in less than half the time and at one-half the cost, and arrangements are making by some enterprising gentlemen of the West to have the speed of transportation still increased, and the price of carriage diminished.
Equally important are the benefits derived by the government and the people from the rapid, regular, and safe transportation of the mail on this road. Before its completion, eight or more days were occupied in transporting the mail from Baltimore to Wheeling; it was then carried on horseback, and did not reach the western country by this route more than once a week. Now it is carried in comfortable stages, protected from the inclemency of the weather, in forty-eight hours; and no less than twenty-eight mails weekly and regularly pass and repass each other on this road. To show this fact, and the absolute necessity and importance of keeping the road in a good state of repair, in order to enable the postoffice department to fulfill the expectations of the public, I will ask the favor of the clerk to read to the House a communication received from the Postmaster General on the subject. [Here the clerk read an extract from a letter of the Postmaster General]. The facilities afforded by such a road in time of war for the transportation of the munitions of war, and the means of defence from one point of the country to another, need scarcely be noticed; they must be palpable and plain to every reflecting mind, and I will not take up the time of the House in detailing them.
As I said before, the road traverses seven different States of this Union, and in its whole extent will cover a distance of near 800 miles. Who, then, can doubt its nationality? Who can question the allegation that it is an immensely important national work? Who can reconcile it to his conscience and his constituents to permit it to go to destruction?
ROAD WAGON