Maumee express. [volume] (Maumee City, Ohio) 1837-1838, 1838-06-16
From the Hesperian.
INTERNAL TRADE.

K From the Hesperian.
..r INTERNAL TRADE.
Rapid improvement in physical civilization,
is a distinguishing characteristic of the pre-
sent age. Of this, the effects as well as the
efficient agents, may be seen in the canals,
the railroads and McAdam roads, which are
fast penetrating and bringing into near neigh
borhood, every part of the civilized world
giving rapid impetus as well to the advance
Of mind as to the movements of commercial
intercourse. In this honorable career, Eng
land, the land Of our ancestors, has led the
way; and her successful example is bright
beacon to encourage other nations to follow
in her luminous wake. The rapid accumula-
tion of wealth, the result Of her energetic and
intelligent industry, operating in country
rich in soil, in minerals, IN harbors, but above
all in mechanical instruments Of labor, has en-
abled her to construct that wonderful net
work of canals, rail. roads, and paved high
ways, which have brought every part of that
country into close proximity to every other
part, and for practical purposes, placed in jux-
Imposition, and as it were in one vast city, the
agriculture, the manufactures, and the CON-
merce of the most powerful of modern nations.
Next to England, but yet far in her rear, fol-
lows our own younr country. Our energies
and genius, not inferior to hers, have been less
productive of great results, only because we
have placed our habitations too far apart
spread our energies over too wide surface,
and thereby deprived ourselves in great mea-
sure Of the manifold advantages flowing from
a system of cooperation. The temptation
held out by the cheapness of land, with the ma
tural desire of mankind to exercise exclusive
dominion over as much territory az possible,
stimulated by that love of independence which
is at once the effect and the guarantee of our
free institutions has scattered the four or five
millions on this side of the Alleghenies, over
country whose whole resources can scarcely
be developed with population, however in
dustrious and intelligent, short of one hundred
millions. But our people are quick to perceive
the cause of their difficulties, and prompt in
the application of appropriate remedies.
They early saw the admirable adaptation Of
the whole country to the construction of sys-
tenn of canals--those cheap and permanent
machines, SO eminently calculated to facilitate
exchanges in the heavy and bulky productions
of new country. To the construction of
these, therefore, the pioneers first directed
their attention. The bold, and as it was at
the time generally considered chimerical, pro-
iect of connecting the ocean and the lakes by
a navigable canal, proved by its success the
great energy and resources of the people of
new country, and the wisdom of their choice
of this mode of communication. This was
certainly work of great magnitude, and its
construction, though but few years back,
was considered prodigy even for the empire
State, and not unworthy the efforts of great
H. IL tl.oE L.. - Al.
great Erie, Gt should be called Clinton) of
nearly equal extent with the parent work, was
few years afterwards undertaken and finish
ed by State not thirty gears old.
These are works well calculated to give
high distinction and renown TO the States
by whose energies they were constructed
But great as is their fame, pervading as is
their usefulness, they are speedily destined to
be thrown into the back ground by asystem of
communication nov in progress of construc-
tion, farther in the far West,and which, when
completed, will be the grandest avenue oftrade
ever constructed by human agency. To give
some account of this system is the main pur-
pose for which have taken this subject in hand.
That part of it called the " Wabash and Erie"
canal, and which may properly be considered
the main trunk, extends from its lowest connex-
ion with the estuary made Dy the mouth OF the
Maumee river, to Terie-Haute on the Wabash,
distance of three hundred and ten miles.
From this point the line is continued by what
is called the "cross cut" canal, twenty -four
miles, till it meets the "central canal" and
thence down the southern section of the latter
one hundred and ten miles, to Evansville, on
the Ohio river-making in all four hundred
and forty-fo miles. The highest level of this
canal is at Fort Wayne, and is less than two
hundred feet above Lake Erie. From this
place to Maumee harbor, its dimensions are TO-
be sixty feet wide and six feet deep. The'oth-|
e. portion, and all its branches, are construct
ing of the present size of the Erie canal. West
Of Fort Wayne, one hundred and ten miles Of
this canal are ready for navigation; eastward
to it termination, one hundred and six miles, |
all is under contract to be finished a year from
the 1st of October next. A considerable por-
ton ofthe rest is under way, and the whole
will be finished as soon as is consistent with a
prudent regard to economy in its construction.
Next in importance to the main trunk, is the
branch known as tho Miami Canal" The
southern portion Of this, between Cincinnati