Also an appropriation for philosophical apparatus
and an increase in the numbers and pay of the Military Academy band.
The attention of Congress will be called during its present session to
various enterprises for the more certain and cheaper transportation of
the constantly increasing surplus of Western and Southern products to
the Atlantic Seaboard. The subject is one that will force itself upon
the legislative branch of the Government sooner or later, and I suggest,
therefore, that immediate steps be taken to gain all available
information to insure equable and just legislation.
One route to connect the Mississippi Valley with the Atlantic, at
Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, Ga., by water, by the way of the Ohio
and Tennessee rivers, and canals and slack-water navigation to the
Savannah and Ocmulgee rivers, has been surveyed, and report made by an
accomplished engineer officer of the Army. Second and third new routes
will be proposed for the consideration of Congress, namely, by an
extension of the Kanawha and James River Canal to the Ohio, and by
extension of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.
I am not prepared to recommend Government aid to these or other
enterprises until it is clearly shown that they are not only of national
interest, but that when completed they will be of a value commensurate
with their cost.
Pages:
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397