The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1931-01-15
NATIONAL OLD TRAILS HGHWAYHAS LONGEST STRETCH
OF CONTINUOUSLY PAVED ROAD In The WHOLE WORLD

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of the new and rapidly spreading ma
ton, it was Albert Gallatin who sug-
gested its actual location.
According to an often-repeated in
cident, Gallatin made his suggestion
Iunceremoniously to Washington be-
fore he had even been presented to
that dignity, which vexed the Father
of his Country not little. 1t is said
that while Washington was on his
western survey trip, he sat before a
rude table in his cabin puzzling, in his
deliberate, painstaking way, over a
map of that territory, seeking an out
let through the mountains. Gallatin
who had also come West for the pur-
pose of studying the topography of
the country, came upon Washington
thus engaged and, without troubling
to announce himself, pointed with his
cane to Laurel Hill saying, "There is
the only practical route" Angry and
startled, the courtly Washington took
off his glasses and glared in speech
less rebuke at the offending intruder.
Then he put on his glasses again and
re-examined the map. At last he
turned to Gallatin and said: "You are
right, sir"
"This," says Judge j. M. Lowe,
president of the National Old Trails
Road Association, twas the beginning
of the ultimate definition or location
of the Old Cumberland (NationaD
Road. 1t was to begin at Cumberland,
the end of Tidewater ON the Potomac,
and extend in generally western di-
rection to the Ohio River at OF near
Wheeling.
"But about this time, John Jay, who
then held the office of Secretary of
Foreign Affairs " 3 *was hidden by
Congress to negotiate a treaty of
commerce with Don Diego Gardoqui,
the newly arrived representative of
Spain, to surrender the negative of
the whole Mississippi, which he
thought was not needed, in exchange
for the commercial advantages which
would rebound to the profits of the
merchants of the shipping colonies.
"The instant cry of hot protest that
came out of the West appraised the
Eastern politicians of the new world
springing into existence in the West,
and notified them that the new from
tier did not end at the Allegheny
Mountains. The proposed treaty was
not adopted.
"The committee appointed by Mr..
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 union So its mission at the be-
ginning had for it's purpose the great
and patriotic one of saving the Union
which then was in great danger of
dissolution, and which the farseeing
statesman's eye of Washington alone
seemed to comprehend.
"The act of Congress established it
as a national highway was signed by
Mr.. jefferson in 1906 and shortly
thereafter the act of construction be-
gan, but the finances for it's construc-
ton had been provided for in the act
of Congress admitting Ohio into the
Union in 1902, 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
admitting the states of Indiana, Hi
nois and Missouri, and road was
thus carried through to completion
and pronounced by Henry Clay, when
finished, as the greatest piece of con-
struction work of its kind in all his
tory, superior in every respect to the
famous Appian Way.
"Then, from time to time, Congress
by additional acts extended the road
as nearly on an air line as was practi-
cable westward to the Mississippi at
or near the city of st. Louis. In the
effort to reach as many capitals as
possible, the road necessarily bore to
the southwest from Indianapolis in
order to take in Vandalia, the then
capital of Illinois. Had Springfield at
that time been the capital, no doubt
the road would have continued, as it
had begun, on an airline through
Springfield, and ultimately due west
from that point.
at is a curious coincidence that
about that time, when the eastern end
of this road was being established,
Daniel Boone and his two sons, Ma
than and Daniel, were busy surveying
and cutting road across Missouri,
long known as the Boonslick Road.
"Afterward, in 1924, just after Mis-
souri, had been admitted to the Union,
her first as well as her greatest sena-
tor, Thomas H. Benton, brought for
ward bill to continue the old Cum
berland (NationaD Road on west
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