The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-06-03
ROAD DEVELOPMENT.
Ex-MayOr T. w. Harrison Reads
Paper
On Roads Before the Topeka
Philosophical Society.
Gives Particular Attention to the
Building of the Old Cumberland
Road by Congress.

At the meeting of the Topeka Philoso-
phicaI society last night Col T. w. Har-
rison read the following paper on the de-
velopment of roads and the Cumberland
road" in particular:
This government was formed by the
voluntary association Of separate colo
MES for mutual defence and protection.
The smoke of the American revolution
had barely died away when the great
question arose as to the custody of the
governing power.
This power originally inhered in the
separate states. But it at once became
apparent that while 50 lodged its exer>
else was cumbersome and difficult.
The constitution became as essential
for the preservation, as the war of the
revolution had been necessary for the
birth of the new republic.
BY the constitution the several states
gave up certain designated powers to the
general government and retained all 9TH
ers.
This would seem to be plain and not
capable of any misunderstanding, and
yet contention always has existed and
probably always will exist over this di-
vidipg line of power and authority.
Whether THE United States is or
''The United States are was question
that created a controversy which cost
this country a million of its best and
noblest men and untold billions of dol
lars in money and property.
Among the earliest questions raised was
that of the power of the general govern
ment to construct and maintain Internal
improvements.
One faction claimed that no such power
had been delegated by the constitution,
while the other insisted that authority to
10 of +I,o
United States, which was expressly dele
gated, carried with it ample power to
construct and maintain internal improve.
ments.
The cohesive power of the public funds
united a ma jority in favor of the expendf-
ture and without ever having this import
ant and fundamental question decisiveIy
settled the appropriations for internal
improvements have continued with con-
stantly increa sing momentum for nearly
a hundred years.
The Cumberland road was among the
very first of the great internal improves
ments undertaken by the general govern
ment.
It was projected at the beginning OF
the present century and was intended to
be a great national wagon road from
the seat of government at Washington
to the city of st. Louis on the Mississ-
ippi river.
Its career was commenced in a very
modest way in 1885, with an appropria-
ton of only $4,000. by an act of con
gress to regulate the laying out and
making a wagon road from Cumberland
in the state of Maryland to the state of
Ohio.
Tt was to be laid out by three discreet
and disinterested persons appointed by
the president and confirmed by the SEN
ate, and was to be four rods in width
and marked on each side every quarter
of a mile in distance and at every angle
and to be built with stone. earth, gravel
or sand with a ditch or water course on
each side and with no elevation of more
than five degrees with the horizon.
To ease the consciences of the over
scrupulous members on the question Of
power, it was also provided that the con-
sent of the states through which it was
to pass must first be obtained. This was
clearly a mere subterfuge, for so soon
after the adoption Of the constitution it
must have been known to every one that
single states could not confer any power
upon the general government and that
these separate states possessed no such
power to convey.
Subsequent appropriations for this road
followed thick and fast until the grand
aggregate reached many millions of dol
lars, the exact amount of which it is
very difficult to ascertain.
President Jefferson approved the
scheme President Madison did not hest
tate to sanction it. President Monroe
opposed it on the mooted ground of want
of authority and struggled through so
printed pages in veto message condemn
ing it, but he afterwards radically
changed his mind and said it was a good
thing and that we ought to have more
internal improvements and recommended
a far more gigantic scheme, the building
of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal by the
general government. John Quincy Adams.
the "Old man eloquent approved liberal
appropriations for this road and sturdy
old Andrew Jackson, known as "Old
Hickory who stamped out incipient
treason, withheld not his name from bills
making generous appropria lions for the
Cumberland road.
In those early days railroads were not
dreamed of and the highest ambition of
the American statesmen seemed to be to
have a good wagon road or a tow-path
canal General information regarding the
Cumberland road seems to be exceed
ingly meager. It was a great undertake
ing and attracted widespread attention
in its day and yet about the only infor-
nation obtainable in regard to it is found
by leafing through the appropriation
acts of congress and the messages of the
presidents recommending or condemning
them.
From 1906 to 1898 more than six mill
lions of dollars were appropriated by the
government for this road Enough it
would seem to have built a good wagon
road from ocean to ocean. And yet this
road from Cumberland to St. Louis was
never completed and the government be-
coming tired of it. finally gave it out
right to the several states in which it
was located.
Just how this vast sum of money was
expended history does not inform US. It
was accredited to the Cumberland road.
Mhether any Of it was used for subsidiz-