Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1922-09-22

vantageS which would rebound to the profits of the merchants of the ship ping colonies. The instant cry of hot protest that came out of the West ap- praised the eastern politicians of the new world springing into existence in the Vest, and notified them that the new frontier of the nation did not end at the Alleghany Mountains. The pro- posed treaty was not adopted. '>, .
 It was this same John Jay who came very near wrecking the treaty when considering the Louisiana Purchase, and if MT. Jefferson had not have sent James Monroe to Paris as special representative, clothed with special power to that end, there is no telling what the results of that treaty might have been.
 The committee appointed by MT. Jefferson to lay out and establish the road stated in their report, "That the tendency of this road will be to cement the states and thus preserve the un- ion," quoting the exact language of John C. Calhoun of South Carolina who, on the floor of the Senate, ad- vocating the establishment of the road employed the above expression. So its mission at the beginning had for its purpose the great and patriotic one of saving the Union which then was in, great danger of dissolution, and which the far-seeing. statesman's' eye of Washington alone seemed to com prehend.
 The act of Congress establishing it as National highway was signed by MT. Jefferson in 1906, and shortly thereafter the act of construction be- gan, but the finances for its construc- ton had been provided for in the act of Congress admitting Ohio into the Union in 1892, whereby certain per centage of monies arising from the sale of public lands should be applied to the building of this road. This same provision entered into the Acts admits ting the states of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, and road was thus car ried thru to completion and pronoun- ced, when finished, by Henry Clay as the greatest piece of construction work of this kind in all history, superior in every respect to the famous Appian Way.
 Then, from time to time, Congress l by additional Acts extended the road as nearly on an air line as was prac- ticable westward to the Mississippi "at or near" the city of St. Louis.
 In the effort to reach as many state capitals as possible, the road necessar- lily bore to the southwest from Indi- anapolis in order to take in Vandalia, the then capital of Illinois. Had Springfield at that time been the capital, there is no doubt but the road would have continued as it had begun, on an air line through Spring field ,and ultimately due west from that point.
 It is a curious coincidence that about that time, to-wit: 1906, when the east ern end of this road was being es- tablished; Daniel Boone and his two sons, Nathan and Daniel, were busy surveying and cutting out a road across Missouri long known as the Boonslick Road.'
 Afterward, in 1924, just after Miss ouri had been admitted to the Union her first as we'll as her greatest sena. tor, Thomas H. Benton, brought for. ward bill to continue the Old Cum. berland (National) Road on west thru what was then called the Indian coun. try, to-wit: Santa Fe, New Mexico This road was surveyed and establish. ed under that bill, and thus it came about that the Old Cumberland (Na. tionaD Road was established turnout its entire length by Acts of Congress as National highway.
 When the era of railroad building came on this road was abandoned, to. wit: about 1887, and permitted to lapse into ruin and decay. No steps were made for,its maintenance or rebuilding until Missouri first made the move. ment in 1907. This was changed into