In 1817, the State of New York reached out to the federal government for funding to dig a canal along the Mohawk River west to Lake Erie. President originally vetoed this bill in 1817 and the New York State legislature chose to build the Erie Canal with their own funds. It was a tremendous success, and even before 1825 when the canal was completed, politicians from other states began to raise their concerns to Washington that the canal would give the State of New York a unfair competitive advantage. Clearly these concerns reached the President's desk. President Monroe wrote about the "[m]any patriotic and enlightened citizens who have made the subject an object of particular investigation" . Monroe explained that these citizens were suggesting a new canal, one of "still greater importance", one that would connect the Chesapeake and the Ohio.
Charles Fenton Mercer, a congressman from Leesburg Virginia assembled a group of very prominent men in Washington to draw up a resolution in support of his plans to build the Chesapeake and Ohio canal. Included in these patriotic and enlightened men were John Mason, Fancis Scott Key and many wealthy landholders along the upper Potomac river. According to author Mike High in The C&O Canal Companion, the resolution drew favorable attention from president Monroe. Early in Monroe's presidency, he stood firm that the federal government did not have the constitutional authority to fund internal improvements, but his views tempered in 1822 when the Cumberland road needed improvements. Now in his 1823 State of the Union Address, Monroe seemed to be softening up even more, when he wrote that Congress did have the right to appropriate money to build the C&O Canal.
"Many patriotic and enlightened citizens who have made the subject an object of particular investigation have suggested an improvement of still greater importance. They are of the opinion that the waters of the Chesapeake and Ohio may be connected together by one continued canal, and at an expense far short of the value and importance of the object to be obtained. If this could be accomplished it is impossible to calculate the beneficial consequences which would result from it.In 1826, the first release of Mercer's report estimated the project of the canal which had to cross mountainous terrain to be $22 million, a shock to it's supporters. A second survey of the project was completed which suggested that the canal be built along the Potomac as far as Cumberland, came in with an estimate of $4.5 million. In 1835, President John Quincy Adams got enthusiastically behind the projet and in 1828 the digging of the canal began. The C & O Canal opened for operations in 1831, and by 1850 the canal reached 184.5 miles over an elevation of 605 feet with 74 canal locks. The final construction cost was just over $11 million.
A great portion of the produce of the very fertile country through which it would pass would find a market through that channel. Troops might be moved with great facility in war, with cannon and every kind of munition, and in either direction. Connecting the Atlantic with the Western country in a line passing through the seat of the National Government, it would contribute essentially to strengthen the bond of union itself.
Believing as I do that Congress possess the right to appropriate money for such a national object (the jurisdiction remaining to the States through which the canal would pass), I submit it to your consideration whether it may not be advisable to authorize by an adequate appropriation the employment of a suitable number of the officers of the Corps of Engineers to examine the unexplored ground during the next season and to report their opinion thereon. It will likewise be proper to extend their examination to the several routes through which the waters of the Ohio may be connected by canals with those of Lake Erie."
For more information on Monroe's views on federal funding of infrastructure projects, please visit http://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2017/07/james-monroe-constitution-and-federal.html
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29465
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_and_Ohio_Canal
The C&O Canal Companion: A Journey through Potomac History, Mike Hugh (JHU Press 2015) pgs 16-17
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Proposed_Map_of_C_and_O_Canal.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment