The Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1834-184?, 1844-06-27

Tie lOllOWlu8 Il
REPORT:
The minority of the Select Committee, to
-,Uhom were referred the memorials Of cti
Gems of Indiana and others, praying a
grant of lands in the Vincennes land dis
trict, to aid in completing a thoroughfare
from Lake Erie to the Ohio rirer By
means ofthe continuation of the Wabash
and Erie canal from Terre Haute to EU-
.anspiue, and also Senate bill No. lis, sub
NIT the folLOwing:
The important facts bearing on this mat
ter are, briefly stated, chiefly these:
Seventeen years ago, Congress decided TO
aid the States of Ohio and Indiana, by a grant
of lands, in ''opening a canal 10 unite, al
n~avigable points, the Waters of the Wabash
river with those of Lake Erie"
The "'navigabIe point" on the Wabash, at
first fixed at Lafayette, was afterwards de-
cided to be some ninety miles lower, at Ter
re Hante, where the Cumberland road crosses
the Wabash. In aid of the canal, then, from
Toledo, on Maumee bay of Lake Erie, to
Terre Haute, on the national road, a dis
lance ofthree hundred miles, Congress grant
ed to the States of Ohio aud Indiana, lands
consisting of alternate sections within FIVE
miles on each side ofthe canal. In addition
TO the proceeds of these lands, the States of
Indiana and Ohio-each prosecuting the
work within her own limits-have expended
avery large sum, which, with the expendit-
ure by the State of Indiana south OF Terre
Haute, will amount to but little, if anything,
short of four millions of dollars. This state
ment is made upon The supposiiion that these
4 States may realize the debts due from The
purchasers of part Of the lands, and the es-
timated value of those which remain unsold;
for the greater part of the work has been
done BY means OF money furnished by loans
created, in order TO ensure the speedy
completion Of the work. 1t is now complei-
ed and in operation TO Lafayette; and will be
in operation 10 Terre Haute, probably, in two
years from this time.
BY the acts containing the above grants of
land, it was declared, that 'said canal, when
completed, shall be and forever remain a
public highway for the Government of the
United States, free fom any toll or other
charge whatsoever, for any property of the
United States, or PERSONS in their service,
passing through the State"
If the Wabash, from Terre Haute down,
were a stream navigable, at all, or nearly all,
seasons of the year, the United States would
J.. in years, be in possession of a national
th~oroughfare, by canal and river, connecting
Lake Erie with The Ohio. But it so happens
as every one acquainted with the Wabash
knows, and as the friends of that river, in a
report of this session, have thesSelveS declar
ed, On. R. Report No. 222, page A. that thai
stream is not navigable from Terre Haute to
IFS mouth (about $50 miles) more than our
months out of the, twelve; and part of these
four months is when the canal would be OBJ
structed by ice. The thoroughflre. there
fore, is open and available not more thar
one-third, or perhaps one-fourth of the year
The State of Indiana, in view of these
considerations, undertook, without furthe
aid from The General Government, to com
plete a communication that s&uld be avail
able at all seasons when not closed by ice
by continuing the canal from Terre Haute 1
Evansville, on the Ohio-a distance OF near
" $50 miles. Had she succeeded, the mag
ni6cent undertaking of connecting the lake
with the Ohio, bv a canal four hundred an
fifty miles long, would have been completed
But, though she expended upwards of $500
600 on this additional enterprise, she sue
ceeded only in completing about fifty mile
out ofthe one hundred miles unfinished W
on which, however, she expended, before sh
abandoned her enterprise, upwards of a qua
ter of a million of dollars, having executed
in detached portions, some of the heavie.
work.
This may furnish evidence that the Stat
of Indiana considered the completion of til
th~oroughfare, by canal, to the Ohio, of yer
great Importance.
There lacked, at the moment when Il
State found herself compelled, by the pre-
sure of the times, to abandon this noble u
dertaking, an amount then estimated at a /
lie upwards of million and a half to cor
plete it. But as these estimates were mat
at a time when labor, provisions and all OF
err necessities were much higher than at pre-
emf. the memoralisis on the subject asse
confidently their conviction that less than
million and a quarter will now suffice for
completion.
This sum, however, small as it is, COZ
nared to the amounts that have been slrea
expended on this canal, both by the Sta
and by the General Government, India
finds herself wholly unable to raise. If d
be denied her, this work, so near its consul
nation. must yet remain for a long term
wears, at least, unfinished. The embaf
ments, excavations, and other detached p'
tons, exposed year after year in their imp
feet condition to the weather, will be grad
ally washed away, and rendered comparati'
ly useless in after times. And-what me
especially concerns the General Governme
her t~horoughfare, to obtain which she |