The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-02-14
From the Baltimore .9nierioan
NAVIGATION OF THE OHIO.

WIN the view OF inducing some acuon on The part
OF the General Government, for improving the navi
cation of the Ohio river resolution this import
ant subject submitted some weeks ago in the Sc
nate Of Pennsylvania and referred to select COM
mittee of that body The Harrisburg Intelligencer
Of Tuesday contains the report of the committee
through Mr. Darsie, its chairman.
The report justly regards the Ohio as forming a
main link in the chain Of internal communication of
the United States. 1t is in this respect that the at
tention of Congress is claimed to the subject of the
improvement of its navigation. brief considera-
ton of of the facts connected with the trade of
that great thoroughfare and showing the vast extent
of country for which it is bond of connexion will
demonstrate the national character of the enter
prise which Congress is solicited to undertake
The Allegheny river, which, by its junction with
the Monongahela, forms the Ohio is navgabe dur
ing porto of the year for boats of light draught
as far as Olean; in Cattaraugus county, New York,
distance Of two hundred and seventy miles from its
mouth.
The Monongahela commands wide extent of
country 1t is now in the course Of improvement by
company, and, by means of dams and slack water
with locks of permanent construction, it will soon
be rendered navigable throughout the year, except
when INSTRUCTED by ice. Its connection with the
great national road at Brownsville and with the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad at Cumberland, must
render it the channel by which the immense trade
and travel destined to be transported by that route
across the mountains will reach the Ohio river.
The city of Pittsburg, at the confluence of the Al
ton of the main line of the Pennsylvania improve
ments. vast amount of money labor, and skill
has been expended in the efforts made to reach that
point from the seaboard, and to lay open an easy
route for trade and travel. If the State of Pennsyl-
yania has labored with her means to accomplish
this most desirable consummation il has not been
done for her benefit alone. Ptsburg is an import
ant point where the East meet the West and it must
be so by reason of natures so ordering it,
Yet all that has been accomplished in Pennsylvania
oil ma he in
of convenient avenue of trade between Pittsburg
and the seaboard, will fail of securing the desirable
results aimed at, if distractions remain in the great
route by which Pittsburg communicates with the
West. The Report before us goes into statsti-
cal details showing the amount Of tonnage shipped at
Pittsburg to ports on the Ohio river during certain
periods of low water and exhibiting the cost of trans
portation as compared with what the charges for the
same would have been under circumstances of ordi-
nary easy navigation But this mode of setting forth
the subject does not strike as the best in the way
of illustration. The enhanced cost Of transportation
on the Ohio, during the summer months, is doubtless
an eyIbut how much greater is the evil of no trans
portation at all The interruption of business the
disappointments and losses of traders and merchants
when goods produce stopped on their way east
west the diminished business on all public works
connected with the great river that forms the artery
of vast interior-these sources of embarrass-
ment, veXation, and hardship which cannot well be
estimated by statistical details but which in the gene
raj view may be appreciated as they are felt.
1t is a matter of complaint, says MIR. Darsie's Re-
port, with the merchants of Philadelphia that they
were compelled during the past summer to pay from
from twenty-five to thirty thousand dollars freight
from Philadelphia to New York, on goods to their
customers, who, from the low water in the Ohio,
were forced to the longer and more expensive route
of the Lakes.
The Improvement Of the navigation of the Ohio is
something which belongs to particular State other
wise the action of Congress IN the matter would not
he Indispensable Yet tie river passes along the Dor
ders of five States, and there six Others with two
Territories Immediately interested which embrace a
population OF more than seven millions. Nor is this
full es,lmate-for the interests of States far removed
in respect to locality om the Ohio are intimately con
ccrned in it as the medium through which the East
and the West exchange commodities and hold friend.
ly and mutually profitable intercourse Pennsylva-
MIA, Maryland, and New York, have expended mil.
lions OF dollars in constructing canals and railroads in
reference to the trade of this river.
he Report ad ,ers to the advantages which would
result from the Improvement Of the Ohio the trans
poitaon OF arms, munitions and men, in time OF war.
II there were no other considerations calculated to en-
orce the claims of this subject to the early
OF Congress, the prospective advantages here alluded
to would be sufficient to the proposed under
taking
The practicability of the desired Improvement is
deemed to be beyond doubt. The Report quotes
Messrs Shreve, Deafied and Dutton all experienced
engineers, TO show their opinions as derived from ex-
perments made under former acts of Congress relative
TO the navigation of the Western rivers In 1882 the
hist named gent declared that the bars through
out the whole extent of the Ohio could b. rcmoy ed in
such manner as to produce safe and uniform nav.
CATION, at It's lowest stage of water, with steamboats,
drawing four feet Of water
he duty of Congress to take care of the internal
trade OF the country well its foreign commerce.
is to our minds Clear And we do not know how this
duty could be better discharged than by taking speedy
measures Tor improving the navigation of the great
rivers Of he w est.