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

ldilNS, VIII iSiildlu ihNOtnplOtO, uAAs ou'lhS |
h%ree-fourths Of the year, closed and utterly
unavailable. To complete this public high
way, free to the General Government, the
memoralists ask no grant of money; nor any
grant oflands, except such as have been ex-
posed for sale at Government price for thirty
seven years, without finding, in that long
term, a purchaser. They ask a grant of the
lands remaining unsold in the Vincennes
land district, originally offered in market in
1907 and having remained open TO entry from
that day to this-amounting to about a mil
lion and a haIfof acres.
The minority of your committee, however,
have agreed to recommend the passage of the
Senate bill referred 10 them, which grants
The alternate sections only of the unsold
lands; and making it imperative on the State
of Indiana, if she accept the grant, to com
plele the canal, which, throughout its entire
length, is to be a public highway, free for
the Government of the United States to the
Ohio.
The undersigned, in agreeing to recon-
mend such a bill, have been actuated chiefly
by these considerations;
First. In view Of the long term of years
Upwards of third of a century, which these
lands have remained in the market unsold, it
appears TO the undersigned probable, that,
unless some artificial Stimulus is given to
their sale, a great p%oriiono of them will not be
entered at all within any reasonable time
Such an artificial stimulus will be the con-
s,ruction o fthis termination of the Wabash
and Erie canal, running, as it will through
these very lands. The undersigned think 1t
an inference fairly warranted by the facts of
the case, that the alternate sections, remain
ing the property of the Federal Government
may become nearly as valuable, after the
completion of the canal, as the entire body
of these unsold lands now is.
But, secondly, if even the difference in
value between the half of these lands then,
and the whole of them now, should be con
siderable, that difference is made up to the
United States by the acquisition ct two
thirds of "a public highway, of WHICH it may
be said that but one-third is now avilable 10
her to say nothing oftbe probable increase
to the value of lands in adjoining land dis
%lricts. And the former consideration is the
5 more important, inasmuch as the chief i'm
, p"ortance of the highway being in the event
of war, it might probably happen that militia
ry stores and munitions would require TO be
} transported during the very two-thirds of the
year when the thoroughfare, in lis present
f imperfect state, would be closed.
4 Without entering into any detailed argu-
i ments 10 pro We the value of the thoroughfdre
2 in question, the undersigned quote OF, thi:
r subject, the following paragraph from the re
e port already alluded to; and ask especial at
}, %tenlion to that portion of it which refers Il
The facilities enjoyed by the British Gov
eminent i'll concentrating troops, by thei
!, ship-canals, on any point Of the northern
d lakes:
/ 1.-THE committee feel more the importance
g of this improvement, as there is in coniem
is plation (and doubtless there will be estab
b lished, in a short period} a naval depot an'
a armory upon the Mississippi and Ohio. Th'
completion of this thoroughfare would rem
der these national works doubly important
as it would enable the Government TO trans
II fer lis arms and munitions of war not onl
;e from their establishment to the Gulf of Mex
b. leo, but through this national highway TO tn
lakes, free from all charge,to any point wher
IN the public service may require also, mater
r. ais, iron and coal-both found up the w;
Sc bash-can be, through this channel, suppl
er ed on the lowest terms to those nation;
n works. The nation should be more emerge
il ic upon this subject, as the British Cover
e, ment are every year extending their facil
10 ties in the Canadas. By the Welland al
IT. New Liverpool canals, the whole British a
@ my in North America could be concentrate
es upon any point throughout the extensiv
nd coasts ofthe northern lakes,in a few days.
ID. is not to be disguised, that by the means
these two ship-canals, tie ST. Lawrence, at
&C. The Lakes, Great Britain not only possess
es the key TO the N of the 10 rthel
Ip- lakes in time o fpeace, but also has the pov
he eI, by a iudicious disposition of her vessels
ar war, TO harass the citizens of every Sta
ID, whose shores are washed by these waters
esi And, thirdly, the decision of the unde
signed has been influenced, 10 some exter
tie by a consideration of the incidental advan
he ages which will result to the col
ny merce of the entire district of country b
tween the Wabash and the Atlantic; al
the more especially TO the State of Indiana
es- placed, at this moment, in a situation
IN great difficulty and embarrassment, will
lit debt, contracted for internal improveme
nm alone, of some twelve millions of dollars
lde equal to about one eighth of the entire pr
'th- perry, real and personal, of her citizens.
'es- As a State, it is true, she must bear t
consequences of her own acts. Her imp
/ a dence has no claim on the General Cover
its ment. But if it should appear that she i
struggled resolu;ely and well, to VIC
,m- through her embarrassments, the strict'
constructionist may admit that il is some
ate commentator oil the grant proposed, if,