The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-05-06

ptosbioHs nave DtcH Cuplcu from laws youioh6
ago passed IN favor of Ohio. IT. then, great part
Of the lots bordering upon these works have been
sold and have become private property, little com
paratyely will remain upon which the proposed IN
crease Of price can operate la some respects this
condition of things Is TO be regretted II the OH
should become law, thu State must content l'sei
with lands little further of. But this eonsolatory
reflection will remain, viz that the influences up
on the price and value of land Of such lines of com
munication across the peninsula will be restrained
within no narrow space; no artificial, no ideal lines
five miles of will limit the benefits that will re-
suit from them. Those benefits will extend not on
W over The whole broad surface Of the country
through which they pass, but throughout the wider
regions Of public domain 10 which they lead, and
which spread over the vast territories beyond.
Leaving this branch Of the subIeet-which adj
verted 10, indeed, not 80 much from any peculiar
force which the objection itself might be presumed
To possess as because the facts | have alluded 10
very strongly illustrate the influence which such
roads and canals have in auesting the attention Of
purchasers, and in inducing the more certain and
rapid sale of your lands|I proceed 10 oonsider the
more grave, methodizcd, and elaborated objections
of the senator from Connecticut. ...
In the review which he took Of the matter, the
senator was pleased, Gra, 10 assume that the works
contemplated by the bill purely local In their
nature and Influences, and In nowise tended 10 AFFECT
the general interests: in other words, that they did
not possess that Naiowsts Of character which of IL
self might give you eognizance OF the subject. The
correctness or incorrectness OF such proposition
can best be tested by regard to the topography Of
the country TO and through which they designed
10 run--to their connexion with the power and re-
of Ohio and Indiana on the one slde and the
relations they bear TO the cities, States, and coun-
tries beyond their western termlDi on the other.
Accurate maps, sir-a knowledge of the location OF
your people, and Of the statistics of the country, to-
gether with some regard TO the lessons OF expert.
an far heller bU which form
our judgment this point than any abstract course
of reasoning about IT, And if these criteria do not
evnce a sufficient nationality Of character with ref
to that commerce tsloesn the States which Is
committed exclusively to your fostering care TO Justl-
~ your action, they will at least be found quite
worthy of consideration with reference TO those
tionai denees for which this government is unques-
tionably bound TO provide. On this branch Of the
subject il is not my desire to add to what have al
ready submitted to the Senate, especially after the
very appropriate remarks of my colleague But
venture nevertheless tc call back to your recollec-
ton, sir, some incidents connected with the history
of that region of country, from which may be de-
duced, think, very useful admoniton.
IL is now fifty years ago that your power first be-
gan be and felt towards the borders Of your
upper lakes. 1t is now fly years ago that "the
western posts" (as they were called in the history
of that period) were quietly delivered up to you IL
will be precisely fifty years on the 4th day of July
mkt when, for the first time, your banner OF stars
and stripes was uufurled, and waved proudly over
the ramparts ofthe old fort at Detroit. But such
consumrnation not effected without prolonged
negotiations Of stirring interest, which terminated
in the British treaty Of 1874. II not effected
either without severe, desperate, and pro-
longed s,rugglr-rull of blood full Of agony! 1t was
not brought about until hro Of your armies had been
annihlated with dreadful slaughter nor until
third army, organized and disciplined under the eye
of Gen. Wayne, had broken the force, and humbled
f. - u .l...u - 49,
old northw western territory.
Prior to that time Detroit had been the commercial,
and, indeed, the political capital of Upper Canada
The military force Of the province was there; Its
courts for the whole of the western district were
holden there Always before, and for a long time
after, it's only social and commercial intercourse
was with and through the Canadas; and to that
point all the Canadian roads converged.
But while every facility existed for intereommu-
nication with the Canadas, none whatever, for very
many years, existed, except by water, for any in
tercourse between Detroit, the villages and settle
mens Of Michigan, and the interior of the Union.
On the land side they were cut off from you by i'm.
passable swamps, or by an almost untrodden and
impervious wilderness. Even so lately within
the last 81 years. your population in Ohio had pro-.
crossed north very little, If any, beyond the town Of
Delaware; and was moving but slowly, If at all,
from Cleveland west, towards Sandusky. The
whole country, indeed, between Michigan and
Cleveland on the east, and Delaware on the south,
comprising the black swamp, was an entire wilder.
ness and almost the whole of belonged still to the
Indians.
Thus isolated, the exposed situation Of Detroit,
in the event Of any disturbance with Great Britain,
lid escape the vigilance of Mr.. Jefferson, then
the President of the United States. He saw the
importance, with view to the military defence of
that remote frontier, of bringing it practically
to the strength and resources Of Ohio, by some in
land communication With that forecast which so
greatly distinguished him, he directed negotiations
therefore to be opened with those tribes of Indians
who still owned the country. A treaty was aceor-
dinghy concluded with them; and by its provisions
you not only acquired right Of way for the per-
manent road which the treaty provided for; but you
acquired too, without price, large tract of land on
each side Of it. Among the last of the official acts
Of Mr.. Jefferson in the winter Of ls0s9, believe,
will be found his message, communicating to the
House the ratified treaty, the purpose he had in
negotiating it, and an invocation of Legislative &C
ton in order to give effect to its provisions Un-
happily no immediate disposition was made of the
subject. Mr.. Jefferson went out of Office. The whole
matter was permitted to sleep 1t slept until our po-
litca horizon became overcast, and it was problem
atical whether peace would be preserved. Then, in
1871 law was passed directing the appointment
of commissioners to explore the country and to
vey and open the road; and for that purpose ma
king an appropriation of money. But it was too
late! The line of a road was indeed surveyed, and
the forests along it in part cleared OUT but Indian
hosttes--the precursor of the coming war--had
commenced. The fatigue parties of your slowly
advancing armies afterwards did the rest; and the
money appropriated soon vanished amidst the vast
aggregate of disbursements for your northern and
western campaigns. And this, sir, was the road
which my colleague described to you, as if it had
beeen literally paved with the fragments Of your
-four barrels and their scattered contents! 1t has
been long since abandoned road, but its desert
ed site may yet be identified, think, by the broken
remnants of your gun carriages and baggage wa
gons scattered hckly along its course; and by the
yet Wondering skeletons of the horses and the
who persisted in your scrvice--remaining, as they
were left, just visible above the surface of the mud
and wet which destroyed themi
1t is the policy, sir, of some individuals to put a
lock upon the stable after the horse is stolen! Act
ing in the philosophy of that maxim-and when
peace had once more spread her blessings over the
land, YOU remembered the admonition Of Mr.. Jeffer-
son-and in 1898, some fifteen years after il was
Land before Congress for its action, you carried into
effect the treaty Of Brownstown You gave the
land on either side the route from Sandusky to the
Miami of the Lake, to the State Of Ohio, upon the
al. 81, ,.,o,ld strc he road kaor