Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1826-04-17

the Cumberland Road, eastwardly, to the tide water
of the Potomac River.
WASHINGTON, March 90, 1926.
SIR. The undersigned, Members OF the Con-
eress Of the United States OF America, peg
leave 10 invite the attention of the Executive to
che exnediency Of extending the National Road
which connects the rivers Ohio and Potomac,
from a suitable point thereon, eastwardly, to the
District of Columbia.
i, is believed by the undersigned that, in the
commencement Of this public highway, it was
the opinion of the then President of the United
States that the road should be conducted, west
wardIy, from the tide Of the Potomac to Mari:
eta. at the mouth Of the Muskingum, so as to
mite the waters Of the two rivers. al points,
from which they were at all times nayigable, to
their mouths.
If the power to construct such road, and
the obligation to exercise il, be traced to the
aet of Congress Of the S0th of April, lSo9, 1t
certainly warrants, if it does not require, that
extension Of this national highway, which the
undersigned presume to recommend.
Among the conditions of the ACT, which ena-
bled the people Of the Territory Of Ohio to
form a State Government and provide for their
admission into the Union, upon an equal FOOT
ing with-the original States, the third provided,
that one-twentieth part of the nett proceeds OF
the public lands in the new State, which might
be sold after the soth Of June. 1902, should be
$pplied to laying out and making public roads,
leading from the nariga5e waters emptying in
10 the Atlantic, to the Ohio river, to the State
of Ohio, and through the same.
Such roads were required to be laid out, un-
der the authority of Congress, with the consent
of the several States through which they might
pass.
BY subsequent act, the Ave per cent. fund
acas divided into two parts, one OF three, and
the other Of two per cent. The first was pledg-
ed for the construction of roads within, and the
last, or two per cent. fund, for roads leading 10
the State.
The preparatory survey, authorized oy this
act, was not required 10 await the consent OF the
States 1t provided for the appointment OF
Commissioners 10 make the survey; and II,
when made, their report was approved by the
President, he was empowered to obtain that
consent In assigning the duties Of the Com
missiouers, the breadth Of the road was pre-
scribed and the mode of its designation. The
manner of constructing it was conhded to the
President, and the first appropriation OF $4,000
dollars 10 this object was charged upon the
actual proceeds Of the two per cent. fund, and
any other money in the treasury, not otherwise
appropriated, chargeable also, however, upon,
and reimbursable, by that fund, as it might az
crue,
In the fulilment of the third condition ofthe
prior act of 1902, Wheeling on the Ohio, and
Cumberland on the Potomac, were fixed upon,
as the two extremes Of the first OF those roads,
designed by that act, to connect the ndctga6le
waters of the Ohio and the Atlantic.
The undersigned cannot think, that the true
shirt Of the acts, which they have quoted, has
been faithfully observed in the extension of this
road. 1t never warranted, in their opinion, the
termination Of the road, eastwardly, at Cum
berand; for the River Potomac not, in its
natural state, navigable from thence down, and
with all its subsequent artificial improvements,
il is not always so at present. 1t is so impeded
in its ascent by the rapidiiy Gifts current as TO
favor TRANSPORTATION to the West as little as if
there were no navigation at any time, and its
descending navigation is so endangered by
rocks, and obstructed by shoals, as to be often
impracticable by laden boats.
If it be conceded, that road terminating at
much higher point of the Potomac than Cum
berand, or even to Western Port, would have
conformed as little 10 the letter as 10 the spirit
OF the recited condition Of the act Of 1902, so In
the contemporaneous, as in the present circum-
stances Of the navigation Of the Potomac, the
point actually assumed for the Eastern extreme
OF the National Road, could not be regarded as
permanent Limitation.
The undersigned are the more disposed TO
press this vie~ Of the acknowledged obligations
of the Federal Government, to the States of this
Union, because II has been recently determined
by Congress to conduct this road westwardy,
70 the Missouri.
AS the policy which prompted the foundation
of this muni6cent work is thus farther develop
ed, the undersigned respectfully contend, that
e1pediency imperiously requires its extension
to "the navisable waters Of the Atlantic" and
the seat of the General Government, by the
shortest and best practicable route.
II cannot be doubted, that it was because the
political centre of the Union had been assumed
TO be on the Northern bank of the Potomac,
that road from its waters to the Ohio, was the
first executed, since the third condition of the
act of 1902 specified no particular river, of the
many navigable waters of the Atlantic, which,
having their sources in the Allegheny, are sepa-
rated by that chain of mountains from the Ohio.