REPORT, &c.

The Secretary of the Treasury, in obedience to the resolution of the Senate of the 2d of March, 1807, respectfully submits the following report on roads and canals.

THE general utility of artificial roads and canals, is at this time so universally admitted, as hardly to require any additional proofs. It is sufficiently evident, that whenever the annual expense of transportation on a certain route, in its natural state, exceeds the interest on the capital emyloyed in improving the communication and the annual expense of transportation, (exclusively of the tolls,) by the improved route, the difference is an annual additional income to the nation. Nor does, in that case, the general result vary, although the tolls may not have been fixed at a rate sufficient to pay to the undertakers the interest on the capital laid out. They, indeed, when that happens, lose; but the community is nevertheless benefited by the undertaking. The general gain is not confined to the difference between the expenses of the transportation of those articles which had been formerly conveyed by that route, but many which were brought to market by other channels, will then find a new and more advantageous direction; and those which, on account of their distance or weight, could not be transported in any manner whatever, will acquire a value, and become a clear addition to the national wealth. Those and many other advantages have become so obvious, that in countries possessed of a large capital, where property is sufficiently secure to induce

individuals to lay out that capital on permanent undertakings, and where a compact population creates an extensive commercial intercourse, within short distances, those improvements may often, in ordinary cases, be left to individual exertion, without any direct aid from government.

There are, however, some circumstances which, whilst they render the facility of communications throughout the United States an object of primary importance, naturally check the application of private capital and enterprise, to improvements on a large scale.

The price of labour is not considered as a formidable obstacle, because whatever it may be, it equally affects the expense of transportation, which is saved by the improvement, and that of effecting the improvement itself. The want of practical knowledge is no longer felt: and the occasional influence of mistaken local interests, in sometimes thwarting or giving an improper direction to public improvements arises from the nature of man, and is common to all countries. The great demand for capital in the United States, and the extent of territory compared with the population are, it is be lieved, the true causes which prevent new undertakings, and render those already accomplished less profitable than had been expected.

1. Notwithstanding the great increase of capital during the last fifteen years, the objects for which it is required continue to be more numerous, and its application is generally more profitable than in Europe. A small portion, therefore, is applied to objects which offer only the prospect of remote and moderate profit. And it also happens that a less sum being subscribed at first than is actually requisite for completing the work, this proceeds slowly; the capital applied remains unproductive for a much

longer time than was necessary, and the interest accruing during that period becomes, in fact, an injurious addition to the real expense of the undertaking.

2. The present population of the United States, compared with the extent of territory over which it is spread, does not, except in the vicinity of the seaports, admit that extensive commercial intercourse within short distances, which, in England and some other countries, forms the principal support of artificial roads and canals. With a few exceptions ca nals, particularly, cannot in America be undertaken with a view solely to the intercourse between the two extremes of. and along the intermediate ground which they occupy. It is necessary, in order to be productive, that the canal should open a communication with a natural extensive navigation which will flow through that new channel. It follows, that whenever that navigation requires to be improved, or when it might at some distance be connected by another canal to another navigation, the first canal will remain comparatively unproductive, until the other improvements are effected-until the other canal is also completed. Thus the intended canal between the Chesapeake and Delaware will be deprived of the additional benefit arising from the intercourse between New-York and the Chesapeake, until an inland navigation shall have been opened between the Delaware and New-York. Thus the expensive canals completed around the falls of Potomac will become more and more productive, in proportion to the improvement, first of the navigation of the upper branches of the river, and then of its communication with the western waters. Some works already executed are unprofitable, many more remain unattempted, because their ultimate productiveness depends on other improvements, too exten

sive or too distant to be embraced by the same individuals.

The general government can alone remove these obstacles.

With resources amply sufficient for the completion of every practicable improvement, it will always supply the capital wanted for any work which it may undertake, as fast as the work itself can progress, avoiding thereby the ruinous loss of interest on a dormant capital, and reducing the real expense to

its lowest rate.

With these resources, and embracing the whole Union, it will complete, on any given line, all the improvements, however distant, which may be necessary to render the whole productive, and eminently beneficial.

The early and efficient aid of the federal government is recommended by still more important considerations. The inconveniences, complaints, and perhaps dangers, which may result from a vast extent of territory, can no otherwise be radically removed, or prevented, than by opening speedy and easy communications through all its parts. Good roads and canals will shorten distances; facilitate commercial and personal intercourse; and unite, by a still more intimate community of interests, the most remote quarters of the United States. No other single operation within the power of government can more effectually tend to strengthen and perpetuate that union, which secures external independence, domestic peace, and internal liberty.

With that view of the subject, the facts respecting canals, which have been collected in pursuance of the resolution of the senate, have been arranged under the following heads:

1. Great canals, from north to south, along the Atlantic sea coast.

2. Communications between the Atlantic and western waters.

3. Communications between the Atlantic waters and those of the great lakes, and river St. Lawrence. 4. Interior canals.

GREAT CANALS ALONG THE ATLANTIC SEA COAST.

The map of the United States will show that they possess a tide-water inland navigation, secure from storms and enemies; and which, from Massachusetts to the southern extremity of Georgia, is principally if not solely interrupted by four necks of land. These are the isthmus of Barnstable; that part of New-Jersey which extends from the Rariton to the Delaware; the peninsula between the Delaware and the Chesapeake; and that low and marshy tract which divides the Chesapeake from Albermarle Sound. It is ascertained that a navigation for sea vessels, drawing eight feet of water, may be effected across the three last; and a canal is also believed to be practicable, not perhaps across the isthmus of Barnstable, but from the harbour of Boston to that of Rhode-Island. The Massachusetts canal would be about twenty-six; the New-Jersey about twenty-eight; and each of the two southern about twenty-two miles in length; making, altogether, less than one hundred miles.

Should this great work, the expense of which, as will hereafter be shown, is estimated at about three millions of dollars, be accomplished, a sea vessel, en tering the first canal in the harbour of Boston, would, through the bay of Rhode-Island, LongIsland Sound, and the harbour of New-York, reach Brunswick on the Rariton; thence pass through the second canal to Trenton on the Delaware, down that river to Christiana or New-Castle, and, through