The Old Pike
by Thomas B. Searight · English · Gutenberg #41799 · 1,103,220 chars · public domain (US)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Old Pike
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: The Old Pike
Author: Thomas B. Searight
Release date: January 7, 2013 [eBook #41799]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41799
Credits: Produced by KD Weeks, Odessa Paige Turner and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
book was produced from scanned images of public domain
material from the Google Print project.)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD PIKE ***
Transcriber's Note
There were a number of spelling and typographical errors in the original
text. The handling of each one is noted in the transcriber's note
at the end of this text. Footnotes have been located at the end of the
paragraphs where they appear. The underscore character indicates where
the original is in _italics_.
[Illustration: Yours truly
T B. Searight]
THE OLD PIKE.
A HISTORY OF
THE NATIONAL ROAD,
WITH
INCIDENTS, ACCIDENTS, AND ANECDOTES
THEREON.
ILLUSTRATED.
BY
THOMAS B. SEARIGHT.
UNIONTOWN, PA:
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR.
1894.
COPYRIGHT, 1894, BY T. B. SEARIGHT.
PRESSES OF
M. CULLATON & CO.,
RICHMOND, IND.
LETTER FROM JAMES G. BLAINE.
STANWOOD, BAR HARBOR, MAINE. }
September 8th, 1892. }
HON. T. B. SEARIGHT,
UNIONTOWN, PA.
MY DEAR FRIEND:--
I have received the sketches of the "Old Pike" regularly and have as
regularly read them, some of them more than once, especially where you
come near the Monongahela on either side of it, and thus strike the land
of my birth and boyhood. I could trace you all the way to Washington, at
Malden, at Centreville, at Billy Greenfield's in Beallsville, at
Hillsboro (Billy Robinson was a familiar name), at Dutch Charley
Miller's, at Ward's, at Pancake, and so on--familiar names, forever
endeared to my memory. I cherish the desire of riding over the "Old
Pike" with you, but I am afraid we shall contemplate it as a scheme
never to be realized.
Very sincerely,
Your friend,
JAMES G. BLAINE.
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGES
Inception of the Road--Author's Motive in Writing its
History--No History of the Appian Way--A Popular Error
Corrected--Henry Clay, Andrew Stewart, T. M. T.
McKennan, General Beeson, Lewis Steenrod and Daniel
Sturgeon--Their Services in Behalf of the Road, etc.,
etc. 13-19
CHAPTER II.
Origin of the Fund for Making the Road--Acts for the
Admission of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri,
etc., etc. 20-24
CHAPTER III.
The Act of Congress Authorizing the Laying Out and Making
of the Road 25-27
CHAPTER IV.
Special Message of President Jefferson--Communicating to
Congress the First Report of the Commissioners--Uniontown
left out, etc. 28-35
CHAPTER V.
Pennsylvania grants Permission to make the Road through
her Territory--Uniontown Restored, Gist left Out, and
Washington, Pennsylvania, made a Point--Heights of
Mountains and Hills--On to Brownsville and Wheeling,
etc., etc. 36-40
CHAPTER VI.
Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, called upon
for Information Respecting the Fund Applicable to the
Roads mentioned in the Ohio Admission Act--His
Responses 41-43
CHAPTER VII.
The Life of the Road Threatened by the Spectre of a
Constitutional Cavil--President Monroe Vetoes a Bill
for its Preservation and Repair--General Jackson has
Misgivings--Hon. Andrew Stewart Comes to the Rescue 44-51
CHAPTER VIII.
State Authority Prevails--The Road Surrendered by
Congress--The Erection of Toll Gates Authorized--
Commissioners Appointed by the States to Receive the
Road, etc., etc. 52-56
CHAPTER IX.
Plan of Repairs--The Macadam System Adopted--Mr. Stockton
offers his services--Captain Delafield made
Superintendent, etc., etc. 57-63
CHAPTER X.
Lieut. Mansfield superseded by Capt. Delafield--The
Turning of Wills Mountain, etc., etc. 64-76
CHAPTER XI.
On with the Work--Wooden Bridges Proposed for the New
Location up Wills Creek and Braddock's Run--The War
Department holds that Wooden Superstructures would be
a Substantial Compliance with the Maryland
Law--Cumberland to Frostburg, etc. 77-86
CHAPTER XII.
Gen. Lewis Cass, Secretary of War, Transmits a
Report--More about the Wooden Bridges for the New
Location near Cumberland, etc. 87-94
CHAPTER XIII.
The Iron Bridge over Dunlap's Creek at Brownsville 95-99
CHAPTER XIV.
Appropriations by Congress at Various Times for Making,
Repairing, and Continuing the Road 100-106
CHAPTER XV.
Speech of Hon. T. M. T. McKennan 107-108
CHAPTER XVI.
Life on the Road--Origin of the Phrase Pike Boys--Slaves
Driven like Horses--Race Distinction at the Old
Taverns--Old Wagoners--Regulars and Sharpshooters--
Line Teams 109-115
CHAPTER XVII.
Old Wagoners continued--Broad and Narrow Wheels--A
Peculiar Wagon--An Experiment and a Failure--Wagon
Beds--Bell Teams 116-119
CHAPTER XVIII.
Old Wagoners continued 120-126
CHAPTER XIX.
Old Wagoners continued--The Harness they Used, etc. 127-133
CHAPTER XX.
Old Wagoners continued--An Exciting Incident of the
Political Campaign of 1840--All about a Petticoat--A
Trip to Tennessee--Origin of the Toby Cigar--The
Rubber--The Windup and Last Lay of the Old Wagoners 134-145
CHAPTER XXI.
Stage Drivers, Stage Lines and Stage Coaches--The
Postillion, etc. 146-155
CHAPTER XXII.
Stages and Stage Drivers continued--Character of Drivers
Defended--Styles of Driving--Classification of
Drivers, etc. 156-163
CHAPTER XXIII.
The First Mail Coaches--The Stage Yard at
Uniontown--Names of Coaches--Henry Clay and the
Drivers--Jenny Lind and Phineas T. Barnum on the Road,
etc., etc. 164-174
CHAPTER XXIV.
Stages and Stage Drivers continued--Gen. Taylor
Approaching Cumberland--Early Coaches, etc. 175-183
CHAPTER XXV.
Distinguished Stage Proprietors--Lucius W. Stockton,
James Reeside, Dr. Howard Kennedy, William H.
Stelle--Old Stage Agents--The Pony Express 184-191
CHAPTER XXVI.
Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers from Baltimore to
Boonsboro--Pen Picture of an Old Tavern by James G.
Blaine 192-196
CHAPTER XXVII.
Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued--Boonsboro to
Cumberland 197-203
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued--Cumberland to
the Little Crossings--The City of Cumberland 204-208
CHAPTER XXIX.
Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued--Little
Crossings to Winding Ridge--Grantsville 209-213
CHAPTER XXX.
Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued--Winding Ridge
to the Big Crossings--The State Line--How it is
Noted 214-219
CHAPTER XXXI.
Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued--Big Crossings
to Mt. Washington 220-226
CHAPTER XXXII.
Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued--Mt. Washington
to Uniontown 227-233
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued--Uniontown--The
Town as it Appeared to Gen. Douglass in 1784--Its
Subsequent Growth and Improvement, etc., etc. 234-243
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued--Uniontown to
Searights 244-249
CHAPTER XXXV.
Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued--Searights to
Brownsville 250-259
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued--Brownsville to
Beallsville 260-265
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued--Beallsville to
Washington 266-272
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued--Washington,
Penn.--Washington and Jefferson College--The Female
Seminary 273-282
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued--Washington to
West Alexander 283-289
CHAPTER XL.
Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued--West Alexander
to Wheeling 290-297
CHAPTER XLI.
West of Wheeling--Old Stage Lines Beyond the Ohio
River--Through Indiana--The Road Disappears Among the
Prairies of Illinois 298-310
CHAPTER XLII.
Superintendents under National and State Control--Old
Mile Posts, etc. 311-318
CHAPTER XLIII.
Old Contractors--Cost of the Road--Contractors for
Repairs, etc. 319-322
CHAPTER XLIV.
Thomas Endsley, William Sheets, W. M. F. Magraw, etc. 323-328
CHAPTER XLV.
Dumb Ike--Reminiscences of Uniontown--Crazy Billy, etc. 329-338
CHAPTER XLVI.
The Trial of Dr. John F. Braddee for Robbing the U.S.
Mails 339-352
CHAPTER XLVII.
Visit of John Quincy Adams to Uniontown in 1837--Received
by Dr. Hugh Campbell--The National Road a Monument of
the Past--A Comparison with the Appian Way 353-356
APPENDIX.
Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania Relating to the
Cumberland Road--Unexpended Balances in
Indiana--Accounts of Two Old Commissioners--Rates
of Toll--Letters of Albert Gallatin, Ebenezer Finley
and Thomas A. Wiley--Curiosities of the Old Postal
Service
357-384
ILLUSTRATIONS.
T. B. Searight Frontispiece
Old Mile Post 5
Stage House and Stables at Mt. Washington 13
Gen. Henry W. Beeson 15
Hon. Daniel Sturgeon 16
Hon. Andrew Stewart 47
Old Toll House 53
Iron Bridge over Dunlap's Creek 95
Hon. T. M. T. McKennan 107
Road Wagon 109
John Thompson 111
Daniel Barcus 112
Henry Clay Rush 114
Harrison Wiggins 116
John Marker 118
Ellis B. Woodward 119
John Deets 121
John Snider 122
William Hall 124
John Wallace 126
Alfred Bailes 129
German D. Hair 130
Ashael Willison 135
Jacob Newcomer 137
John Ferren 138
Morris Mauler 140
James Smith, of Henry 144
Stage Coach 146
William Whaley 151
Redding Bunting 152
John Bunting 156
Samuel Luman 158
Joseph Whisson 162
Maj. William A. Donaldson 165
William G. Beck 168
Henry Farwell 171
The Narrows 176
Hanson Willison 178
Matt. Davis 180
John McIlree 182
L. W. Stockton 185
James Reeside 186
William H. Stelle 189
John Kelso 204
David Mahaney 210
John Risler 215
The Temple of Juno 217
The Endsley House 218
The Big Crossings 220
Daniel Collier 222
Sebastian Rush 225
Ruins of John Rush House 226
Hon. Samuel Shipley 229
Stone House, Darlington's 230
James Snyder 232
Gen. Ephraim Douglass 235
Aaron Wyatt 239
The Brownfield House 240
Col. Samuel Elder 242
The Searight House 245
Joseph Gray 247
William Shaw 248
Abel Colley 250
Hon. William Hatfield 252
The Johnson-Hatfield House 254
The Workman House 256
Bridge over the Monongahela 259
Old Tavern at Malden 261
William Greenfield 263
Charles Guttery 265
Billy Robinson 267
Daniel Ward 268
John W. McDowell 270
S. B. Hayes 279
George T. Hammond 281
The Rankin House 283
The Miller House 284
The "S" Bridge 286
David Bell 288
Joseph F. Mayes 291
Mrs. Sarah Beck 292
Col. Moses Shepherd 294
Mrs. Lydia Shepherd 295
John McCortney 296
Bridge over Whitewater River 308
Gen. George W. Cass 311
William Searight 313
William Hopkins 315
Daniel Steenrod 320
W. M. F. Magraw 327
"Crazy Billy" 333
German D. Hair House 353
Dr. Hugh Campbell 354
The Big Water-Trough on Laurel Hill 356
[Illustration: STAGE HOUSE AND STABLES AT MT. WASHINGTON.]
THE OLD PIKE.
CHAPTER I.
_Inception of the Road--Author's Motive in Writing its History--No
History of the Appian Way--A Popular Error Corrected--Henry Clay,
Andrew Stewart, T. M. T. McKennan, Gen. Beeson, Lewis Steenrod and
Daniel Sturgeon--Their Services in Behalf of the Road--Braddock's
Road--Business and Grandeur of the Road--Old and Odd
Names--Taverns--No Beer on the Road--Definition of Turnpike--An Old
Legal Battle._
The road which forms the subject of this volume, is the only highway of
its kind ever wholly constructed by the government of the United States.
When Congress first met after the achievement of Independence and the
adoption of the Federal Constitution, the lack of good roads was much
commented upon by our statesmen and citizens generally, and various
schemes suggested to meet the manifest want. But, it was not until the
year 1806, when Jefferson was President, that the proposition for a
National Road took practical shape. The first step, as will hereinafter
be seen, was the appointment of commissioners to lay out the road, with
an appropriation of money to meet the consequent expense. The author of
this work was born and reared on the line of the road, and has spent his
whole life amid scenes connected with it. He saw it in the zenith of its
glory, and with emotions of sadness witnessed its decline. It was a
highway at once so grand and imposing, an artery so largely instrumental
in promoting the early growth and development of our country's wonderful
resources, so influential in strengthening the bonds of the American
Union, and at the same time so replete with important events and
interesting incidents, that the writer of these pages has long cherished
a hope that some capable hand would write its history and collect and
preserve its legends, and no one having come forward to perform the
task, he has ventured upon it himself, with unaffected diffidence and a
full knowledge of his inability to do justice to the subject.
It is not a little singular that no connected history of the renowned
Appian Way can be found in our libraries. Glimpses of its existence and
importance are seen in the New Testament and in some old volumes of
classic lore, but an accurate and complete history of its inception,
purpose, construction and development, with the incidents, accidents and
anecdotes, which of necessity were connected with it, seems never to
have been written. This should not be said of the great National Road of
the United States of America. The Appian Way has been called the Queen
of Roads. We claim for our National highway that it _was_ the King of
Roads.
Tradition, cheerfully acquiesced in by popular thought, attributes to
Henry Clay the conception of the National Road, but this seems to be
error. The Hon. Andrew Stewart, in a speech delivered in Congress,
January 27th, 1829, asserted that "Mr. Gallatin was the very first man
that ever suggested the plan for making the Cumberland Road." As this
assertion was allowed to go unchallenged, it must be accepted as true,
however strongly and strangely it conflicts with the popular belief
before stated. The reader will bear in mind that the National Road and
the Cumberland Road are one and the same. The road as constructed by
authority of Congress, begins at the city of Cumberland, in the State of
Maryland, and this is the origin of the name Cumberland Road. All the
acts of Congress and of the legislatures of the States through which the
road passes, and they are numerous, refer to it as the Cumberland Road.
The connecting link between Cumberland and the city of Baltimore is a
road much older than the Cumberland Road, constructed and owned by
associations of individuals, and the two together constitute the
National Road.
While it appears from the authority quoted that Henry Clay was not the
planner of the National Road, he was undoubtedly its ablest and most
conspicuous champion. In Mallory's Life of Clay it is stated that "he
advocated the policy of carrying forward the construction of the
Cumberland Road as rapidly as possible," and with what earnestness,
continues his biographer, "we may learn from his own language, declaring
that he had to _beg_, _entreat_ and _supplicate_ Congress, session after
session, to grant the necessary appropriations to complete the road."
Mr. Clay said, "I have myself toiled until my powers have been exhausted
and prostrated to prevail on you to make the grant." No wonder Mr. Clay
was a popular favorite along the whole line of the road. At a public
dinner tendered him by the mechanics of Wheeling, he spoke of "the great
interest the road had awakened in his breast, and expressed an ardent
desire that it might be prosecuted to a speedy completion." Among other
things he said that "a few years since he and his family had employed
the whole or greater part of a day in traveling the distance of about
nine miles from Uniontown to Freeman's,[A] on Laurel Hill, which now,
since the construction of the road over the mountains, could be
accomplished, together with seventy more in the same time," and that
"the road was so important to the maintenance of our Union that he
would not consent to give it up to the keeping of the several States
through which it passed."
[Footnote A: Benjamin Freeman kept a tavern on the old Braddock
Road, a short distance south of Mt. Washington.
Locating his house on Laurel Hill, was an error of
Mr. Clay, but of little consequence, and readily
made under the circumstances. A monument was
erected, and is still standing, on the roadside near
Wheeling, commemorative of the services of Mr. Clay
in behalf of the road.]
[Illustration: GEN. HENRY W. BEESON.]
Hon. Andrew Stewart, of Uniontown, who served many years in Congress,
beginning with 1820, was, next to Mr. Clay, the most widely known and
influential congressional friend of the road, and in earnestness and
persistency in this behalf, not excelled even by Mr. Clay. Hon. T. M. T.
McKennan, an old congressman of Washington, Pennsylvania, was likewise a
staunch friend of the road, carefully guarding its interests and
pressing its claims upon the favorable consideration of Congress. Gen.
Henry W. Beeson, of Uniontown, who represented the Fayette and Greene
district of Pennsylvania in Congress in the forties, was an indomitable
friend of the road. He stoutly opposed the extension of the Baltimore
and Ohio railroad west of Cumberland, through Pennsylvania, and was
thoroughly sustained by his constituents. In one of his characteristic
speeches on the subject, he furnished a careful estimate of the number
of horse-shoes made by the blacksmiths along the road, the number of
nails required to fasten them to the horses' feet, the number of bushels
of grain and tons of hay furnished by the farmers to the tavern keepers,
the vast quantity of chickens, turkeys, eggs and butter that found a
ready market on the line, and other like statistical information going
to show that the National Road would better subserve the public weal
than a steam railroad. This view at the time, and in the locality
affected, was regarded as correct, which serves as an illustration of
the change that takes place in public sentiment, as the wheels of time
revolve and the ingenuity of man expands. Lewis Steenrod, of the
Wheeling district, was likewise an able and influential congressional
friend of the road. He was the son of Daniel Steenrod, an old
tavernkeeper on the road, near Wheeling; and the Cumberland, Maryland,
district always sent men to Congress who favored the preservation and
maintenance of the road. Hon. Daniel Sturgeon, who served as a senator
of the United States for the State of Pennsylvania from 1840 to 1852,
was also an undeviating and influential friend of the road. He gave
unremitting attention and untiring support to every measure brought
before the Senate during his long and honorable service in that body,
designed to make for the road's prosperity, and preserve and maintain it
as the nation's great highway. His home was in Uniontown, on the line of
the road, and he was thoroughly identified with it alike in sentiment
and interest. He was not a showy statesman, but the possessor of
incorruptible integrity and wielded an influence not beneath that of any
of his compeers, among whom were that renowned trio of Senators, Clay,
Webster and Calhoun.
Frequent references will be made in these pages to the Old Braddock
Road, but it is not the purpose of the writer to go into the history of
that ancient highway. This volume is devoted exclusively to the National
Road. We think it pertinent, however, to remark that Braddock's Road
would have been more appropriately named Washington's Road. Washington
passed over it in command of a detachment of Virginia troops more than a
year before Braddock ever saw it. Mr. Veech, the eminent local
historian, says that Braddock's Road and Nemicolon's Indian trail are
identical, so that Nemicolon, the Indian, would seem to have a higher
claim to the honor of giving name to this old road than General
Braddock. However, time, usage and common consent unite in calling it
Braddock's Road, and, as a rule, we hold it to be very unwise, not to
say downright foolishness, to undertake to change old and familiar
names. It is difficult to do, and ought not to be done.
From the time it was thrown open to the public, in the year 1818, until
the coming of railroads west of the Allegheny mountains, in 1852, the
National Road was the one great highway, over which passed the bulk of
trade and travel, and the mails between the East and the West. Its
numerous and stately stone bridges with handsomely turned arches, its
iron mile posts and its old iron gates, attest the skill of the workmen
engaged on its construction, and to this day remain enduring monuments
of its grandeur and solidity, all save the imposing iron gates, which
have disappeared by process of conversion prompted by some utilitarian
idea, savoring in no little measure of sacrilege. Many of the most
illustrious statesmen and heroes of the early period of our national
existence passed over the National Road from their homes to the capital
and back, at the opening and closing of the sessions of Congress.
Jackson, Harrison, Clay, Sam Houston, Polk, Taylor, Crittenden, Shelby,
Allen, Scott, Butler, the eccentric Davy Crockett, and many of their
contemporaries in public service, were familiar figures in the eyes of
the dwellers by the roadside. The writer of these pages frequently saw
these distinguished men on their passage over the road, and remembers
with no little pride the incident of shaking hands with General Jackson,
as he sat in his carriage on the wagon-yard of an old tavern. A coach,
in which Mr. Clay was proceeding to Washington, was upset on a pile of
limestone, in the main street of Uniontown, a few moments after supper
at the McClelland house. Sam Sibley was the driver of that coach, and
had his nose broken by the accident. Mr. Clay was unhurt, and upon being
extricated from the grounded coach, facetiously remarked that: "This is
mixing the Clay of Kentucky with the limestone of Pennsylvania."
As many as twenty-four horse coaches have been counted in line at one
time on the road, and large, broad-wheeled wagons, covered with white
canvass stretched over bows, laden with merchandise and drawn by six
Conestoga horses, were visible all the day long at every point, and many
times until late in the evening, besides innumerable caravans of horses,
mules, cattle, hogs and sheep. It looked more like the leading avenue of
a great city than a road through rural districts.
[Illustration: HON. DANIEL STURGEON.]
The road had a peculiar nomenclature, familiar to the tens of thousands
who traveled over it in its palmy days. The names, for example, applied
to particular localities on the line, are of striking import, and
blend harmoniously with the unique history of the road. With these names
omitted, the road would be robbed of much that adds interest to its
history. Among the best remembered of these are, The Shades of Death,
The Narrows, Piney Grove, Big Crossings, Negro Mountain, Keyser's Ridge,
Woodcock Hill, Chalk Hill, Big Savage, Little Savage, Snake Hill, Laurel
Hill, The Turkey's Nest, Egg Nog Hill, Coon Island and Wheeling Hill.
Rich memories cluster around every one of these names, and old wagoners
and stage drivers delight to linger over the scenes they bring to mind.
The road was justly renowned for the great number and excellence of its
inns or taverns. On the mountain division, every mile had its tavern.
Here one could be seen perched on some elevated site, near the roadside,
and there another, sheltered behind a clump of trees, many of them with
inviting seats for idlers, and all with cheerful fronts toward the weary
traveler. The sign-boards were elevated upon high and heavy posts, and
their golden letters winking in the sun, ogled the wayfarer from the hot
road-bed and gave promise of good cheer, while the big trough,
overflowing with clear, fresh water, and the ground below it sprinkled
with droppings of fragrant peppermint, lent a charm to the scene that
was well nigh enchanting.
The great majority of the taverns were called wagon stands, because
their patrons were largely made up of wagoners, and each provided with
grounds called the wagon-yard, whereon teams were driven to feed, and
rest over night. The very best of entertainment was furnished at these
wagon stands. The taverns whereat stage horses were kept and exchanged,
and stage passengers took meals, were called "stage houses," located at
intervals of about twelve miles, as nearly as practicable.
The beer of the present day was unknown, or if known, unused on the
National Road during the era of its prosperity. Ale was used in limited
quantities, but was not a favorite drink. Whisky was the leading
beverage, and it was plentiful and cheap. The price of a drink of whisky
was three cents, except at the stage houses, where by reason of an
assumption of aristocracy the price was five cents. The whisky of that
day is said to have been pure, and many persons of unquestioned
respectability affirm with much earnestness that it never produced
delirium tremens. The current coin of the road was the big copper cent
of United States coinage, the "fippenny bit," Spanish, of the value of
six and one-fourth cents, called for brevity a "fip," the "levy,"
Spanish, of the value of twelve and a half cents, the quarter, the half
dollar, and the dollar. The Mexican and Spanish milled dollar were
oftener seen than the United States dollar. The silver five-cent piece
and the dime of the United States coinage were seen occasionally, but
not so much used as the "fip" and the "levy." In times of stringency,
the stage companies issued scrip in denominations ranging from five
cents to a dollar, which passed readily as money. The scrip was similar
to the postal currency of the war period, lacking only in the artistic
skill displayed in the engraving of the latter. A hungry traveler could
obtain a substantial meal at an old wagon stand tavern for a "levy," and
two drinks of whisky for a "fippenny bit." The morning bill of a wagoner
with a six-horse team did not exceed one dollar and seventy-five cents,
which included grain and hay for the horses, meals for the driver, and
all the drinks he saw proper to take.
The National Road is not in a literal sense a turnpike. A turnpike, in
the original meaning of the word, is a road upon which pikes were placed
to turn travelers thereon through gates, to prevent them from evading
the payment of toll. Pikes were not used, or needed on the National
Road. It was always kept in good condition, and travelers thereon, as a
rule, paid the required toll without complaining. At distances of
fifteen miles, on the average, houses were erected for toll collectors
to dwell in, and strong iron gates, hung to massive iron posts, were
established to enforce the payment of toll in cases of necessity. These
toll houses were of uniform size, angular and round, west of the
mountains constructed of brick, and through the mountains, of stone,
except the one six miles west of Cumberland, which is of brick. They are
all standing on their old sites at this date (1893), except the one that
stood near Mt. Washington, and the one that stood near the eastern base
of Big Savage Mountain. At the last mentioned point, the old iron gate
posts are still standing, firmly rooted in their original foundations,
and plastered all over with advertisements of Frostburg's business
houses, but the old house and the old gates have gone out of sight
forever.
It is curious to note how the word turnpike has been perverted from its
literal meaning by popular usage. The common idea is that a turnpike is
a road made of stone, and that the use of stone is that alone which
makes it a turnpike. The common phrase, "piking a road," conveys the
idea of putting stones on it, whereas in fact, there is no connection
between a stone and a pike, and a road might be a turnpike without a
single stone upon it. It is the contrivance to turn travelers through
gates, before mentioned, that makes a turnpike. We recall but one
instance of a refusal to pay toll for passing over the National Road,
and that was a remarkable one. It grew out of a misconception of the
scope of the act of Congress, providing for the exemption from toll of
carriages conveying the United States mails. The National Road Stage
Company, commonly called the "Old Line," of which Lucius W. Stockton was
the controlling spirit, was a contractor for carrying the mails, and
conceived the idea that by placing a mail pouch in every one of its
passenger coaches it could evade the payment of toll. Stage companies
did not pay toll to the collectors at the gates, like ordinary
travelers, but at stated periods to the Road Commissioner. At the time
referred to, William Searight, father of the writer, was the
commissioner in charge of the entire line of the road through the state
of Pennsylvania, and it was fifty years ago. Upon presenting his account
to Mr. Stockton, who lived at Uniontown, for accumulated tolls, that
gentleman refused payment on the ground that all his coaches carried the
mail, and were therefore exempt from toll. The commissioner was of
opinion that the act of Congress could not be justly construed to cover
so broad a claim, and notified Mr. Stockton that if the toll was not
paid the gates would be closed against his coaches. Mr. Stockton was a
resolute as well as an enterprising man, and persisted in his position,
whereupon an order was given to close the gates against the passage of
his coaches until the legal toll was paid. The writer was present,
though a boy, at an execution of this order at the gate five miles west
of Uniontown. It was in the morning. The coaches came along at the usual
time and the gates were securely closed against them. The commissioner
superintended the act in person, and a large number of people from the
neighborhood attended to witness the scene, anticipating tumult and
violence, as to which they were happily disappointed. The drivers
accepted the situation with good nature, but the passengers, impatient
to proceed, after learning the cause of the halt, paid the toll,
whereupon the gates were thrown open, and the coaches sped on. For a
considerable time after this occurrence an agent was placed on the
coaches to pay the toll at the gates. Mr. Stockton instituted
prosecutions against the commissioner for obstructing the passage of the
United States mails, which were not pressed to trial, but the main
contention was carried to the Supreme Court of the United States for
adjudication on a case stated, and Mr. Stockton's broad claim was
denied, the court of last resort holding that "the exemption from tolls
did not apply to any other property (than the mails) conveyed in the
same vehicle, nor to any persons traveling in it, unless he was in the
service of the United States and passing along the road in pursuance of
orders from the proper authority; and further, that the exemption could
not be claimed for more carriages than were necessary for the safe,
speedy and convenient conveyance of the mail." This case is reported in
full in 3d Howard U. S. Reports, page 151 _et seq._, including the full
text of Chief Justice Taney's opinion, and elaborate dissenting opinions
by Justices McClean and Daniel. The attorneys for the road in this
controversy were Hon. Robert P. Flenniken and Hon. James Veech of
Uniontown, and Hon. Robert J. Walker of Mississippi, who was Secretary
of the Treasury in the cabinet of President Polk. After this decision,
and by reason of it, the Legislature of Pennsylvania enacted the law of
April 14th, 1845, still in force, authorizing the collection of tolls
from passengers traveling in coaches which at the same time carried the
mail.
CHAPTER II.
_Origin of the Fund for Making the Road.--Acts for the Admission of
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri--Report of a Committee of
Congress as to the Manner of Applying the Ohio Fund--Distances from
Important Eastern Cities to the Ohio River--The Richmond Route
Postponed--The Spirit and Perseverance of Pennsylvania--Maryland,
"My Maryland," not behind Pennsylvania--Wheeling the Objective
Point--Brownsville a Prominent Point--Rivers tend to Union,
Mountains to Disunion._
Act of April 30, 1802, for the admission of Ohio, provides that
one-twentieth part of the net proceeds of the lands lying within the
said State sold by Congress, from and after the 30th of June next, after
deducting all expenses incident to the same, shall be applied to laying
out and making public roads leading from navigable waters emptying into
the Atlantic to the Ohio, to the said State and through the same, such
roads to be laid out under the authority of Congress, with the consent
of the several States through which the road shall pass.
Act of April 19, 1816, for the admission of Indiana, provides that five
per cent. of the net proceeds of lands lying within the said territory,
and which shall be sold by Congress from and after the first day of
December next, after deducting all expenses incident to the same, shall
be reserved for making public roads and canals, of which three-fifths
shall be applied to those objects within the said State under the
direction of the Legislature thereof, and two-fifths to the making of a
road or roads leading to the said State under the direction of Congress.
Act of April 18, 1818, for the admission of Illinois, provides that five
per cent. of the net proceeds of the lands lying within the said State,
and which shall be sold by Congress from and after the first day of
January, 1819, after deducting all expenses incident to the same, shall
be reserved for the purposes following, viz: Two-fifths to be disbursed
under the direction of Congress in making roads leading to the State,
the residue to be appropriated by the Legislature of the State for the
encouragement of learning, of which one-sixth part shall be exclusively
bestowed on a college or university.
Act of March 6, 1820, admitting Missouri, provides that five per cent.
of the net proceeds of the sale of lands lying within the said Territory
or State, and which shall be sold by Congress from and after the first
day of January next, after deducting all expenses incident to the same,
shall be reserved for making public roads and canals, of which
three-fifths shall be applied to those objects within the State under
the direction of the Legislature thereof, and the other two-fifths in
defraying, under the direction of Congress, the expenses to be incurred
in making a road or roads, canal or canals, leading to the said State.
No. 195.
NINTH CONGRESS--FIRST SESSION.
CUMBERLAND ROAD.
Communicated to the Senate December 19, 1805.
Mr. Tracy, from the committee to whom was referred the examination of
the act entitled, "An act to enable the people of the eastern division
of the territory northwest of the river Ohio to form a Constitution and
State Government, and for the admission of such State into the Union on
an equal footing with the original States, and for other purposes;" and
to report the manner in which, in their opinion, the money appropriated
by said act ought to be applied, made the following report:
That, upon examination of the act aforesaid, they find "the
one-twentieth part, or five per cent., of the net proceeds of the lands
lying within the State of Ohio, and sold by Congress from and after the
30th day of June, 1802, is appropriated for the laying out and making
public roads leading from the navigable waters emptying into the
Atlantic to the river Ohio, to said State, and through the same; such
roads to be laid out under the authority of Congress, with the consent
of the several States through which the road shall pass."
They find that by a subsequent law, passed on the 3d day of March, 1803,
Congress appropriated three per cent. of the said five per cent. to
laying out and making roads _within_ the State of Ohio, leaving two per
cent. of the appropriation contained in the first mentioned law
unexpended, which now remains for "_the laying out, and making roads
from the navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic to the river Ohio,
to said State_."
They find that the net proceeds of sales of land in the State of Ohio,
From 1st July, 1802, to June 30, 1803, both inclusive, were $124,400 92
From 1st July, 1803, to June 30, 1804 176,203 35
From 1st July, 1804, to June 30, 1805 266,000 00
From 1st July, 1805, to Sept. 30, 1805 66,000 00
-----------
Amounting, in the whole, to $632,604 27
Two per cent. on which sum amounts to $12,652. Twelve thousand six
hundred and fifty-two dollars were, therefore, on the 1st day of October
last, subject to the uses directed by law, as mentioned in this report;
and it will be discerned that the fund is constantly accumulating, and
will, probably, by the time regular preparations can be made for its
expenditure, amount to eighteen or twenty thousand dollars. The
committee have examined, as far as their limited time and the scanty
sources of facts within their reach would permit, the various routes
which have been contemplated for laying out roads pursuant to the
provisions of the act first mentioned in this report.
They find that the distance from Philadelphia to Pittsburg is 314 miles
by the usual route, and on a straight line about 270.
From Philadelphia to the nearest point on the river Ohio, contiguous to
the State of Ohio, which is probably between Steubenville and the mouth
of Grave creek, the distance by the usual route is 360 miles, and on a
straight line about 308.
From Baltimore to the river Ohio, between the same points, and by the
usual route, is 275 miles, and on a straight line 224.
From this city (Washington) to the same points on the river Ohio, the
distance is nearly the same as from Baltimore; probably the difference
is not a plurality of miles.
From Richmond, in Virginia, to the nearest point on the river Ohio, the
distance by the usual route is 377 miles; but new roads are opening
which will shorten the distance fifty or sixty miles; 247 miles of the
contemplated road, from Richmond northwesterly, will be as good as the
roads usually are in that country, but the remaining seventy or eighty
miles are bad, for the present, and probably will remain so for a length
of time, as there seems to be no existing inducement for the State of
Virginia to incur the expense of making that part of the road passable.
From Baltimore to the Monongahela river, where the route from Baltimore
to the Ohio river will intersect it, the distance as usually traveled is
218 miles, and on a straight line about 184. From this point, which is
at or near Brownsville, boats can pass down, with great facility, to the
State of Ohio, during a number of months in every year.
The above distances are not all stated from actual mensuration, but it
is believed they are sufficiently correct for the present purpose.
The committee have not examined any routes northward of that leading
from Philadelphia to the river Ohio, nor southward of that leading from
Richmond, because they suppose the roads to be laid out must strike the
river Ohio on some point contiguous to the State of Ohio, in order to
satisfy the words of the law making the appropriation; the words are:
"Leading from the navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic, to the
river Ohio, to the said State, and through the same."
The mercantile intercourse of the citizens of Ohio with those of the
Atlantic States is chiefly in Philadelphia and Baltimore; not very
extensive in the towns on the Potomac, within the District of Columbia,
and still less with Richmond, in Virginia. At present, the greatest
portion of their trade is with Philadelphia; but it is believed their
trade is rapidly increasing with Baltimore, owing to the difference of
distance in favor of Baltimore, and to the advantage of boating down the
Monongahela river, from the point where the road strikes it, about 70
miles by water, and 50 by land, above Pittsburg.
The sum appropriated for laying out and making roads is so small that
the committee have thought it most expedient to direct an expenditure to
one route only. They have therefore endeavored to fix on that which, for
the present, will be most accommodating to the citizens of the State of
Ohio; leaving to the future benevolence and policy of congress, an
extension of their operations on this or other routes, and an increase
of the requisite fund, as the discoveries of experience may point out
their expediency and necessity. The committee being fully convinced that
a wise government can never lose sight of an object so important as that
of connecting a numerous and rapidly increasing population, spread upon
a fertile and extensive territory, with the Atlantic States, now
separated from them by mountains, which, by industry and an expense
moderate in comparison with the advantages, can be rendered passable.
The route from Richmond must necessarily approach the State of Ohio in a
part thinly inhabited, and which, from the nature of the soil and other
circumstances, must remain so, at least for a considerable time; and,
from the hilly and rough condition of the country, no roads are or can
be conveniently made, leading to the principal population of the State
of Ohio.
These considerations have induced the committee to postpone, for the
present, any further consideration of that route.
The spirit and perseverance of Pennsylvania are such, in the matter of
road making, that no doubt can remain but they will, in a little time,
complete a road from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, as good as the nature of
the ground will permit. They are so particularly interested to
facilitate the intercourse between their trading capital, Philadelphia,
not only to Pittsburg, but also to the extensive country within that
State, on the western waters, that they will, of course, surmount the
difficulties presented by the Allegheny mountain, Chestnut Ridge and
Laurel Hill, the three great and almost exclusive impediments which now
exist on that route.
The State of Maryland, with no less spirit and perseverance, are engaged
in making roads from Baltimore and from the western boundary of the
District of Columbia, through Fredericktown, to Williamsport. Were the
Government of the United States to direct the expenditure of the fund in
contemplation upon either of these routes, for the present, in
Pennsylvania or Maryland, it would, probably, so far interfere with the
operations of the respective States, as to produce mischief instead of
benefit; especially as the sum to be laid out by the United States is
too inconsiderable, alone, to effect objects of such magnitude. But as
the State of Maryland have no particular interest to extend their road
across the mountains (and if they had it would be impracticable, because
the State does not extend so far), the committee have thought it
expedient to recommend the laying out and making a road from Cumberland,
on the northerly bank of the Potomac, and within the State of Maryland,
to the river Ohio, at the most convenient place between a point on the
easterly bank of said river, opposite to Steubenville, and the mouth of
Grave creek, which empties into said river Ohio a little below Wheeling,
in Virginia. This route will meet and accommodate the roads leading from
Baltimore and the District of Columbia; it will cross the Monongahela
river, at or near Brownsville, sometimes called Redstone, where the
advantage of boating can be taken; and from the point where it will
probably intersect the river Ohio, there are now roads, or they can
easily be made over feasible and proper ground, to and through the
principal population of the State of Ohio.
Cumberland is situated at the eastern foot of the Allegheny mountains,
about eighty miles from Williamsport, by the usual route, which is
circuitous, owing to a large bend in the river Potomac, on the bank of
which the road now runs, the distance on a straight line is not more
than fifty or fifty-five miles, and over tolerable ground for a road,
which will probably be opened by the State of Maryland, should the route
be established over the mountains, as contemplated by this report.
From Cumberland to the western extremity of Laurel Hill, by the route
now travelled, the distance is sixty-six miles, and on a straight line
about fifty-five; on this part of the route, the committee suppose the
first and very considerable expenditures are specially necessary. From
Laurel Hill to the Ohio river, by the usual route, is about seventy
miles, and on a straight line fifty-four or five; the road is tolerable,
though capable of amelioration.
To carry into effect the principles arising from the foregoing facts,
the committee present herewith a bill for the consideration of the
Senate. They suppose that to take the proper measures for carrying into
effect the section of the law respecting a road or roads to the State of
Ohio, is a duty imposed upon Congress by the law itself, and that a
sense of duty will always be sufficient to insure the passage of the
bill now offered to the Senate. To enlarge upon the highly important
considerations of cementing the union of our citizens located on the
Western waters with those of the Atlantic States, would be an indelicacy
offered to the understandings of the body to whom this report is
addressed, as it might seem to distrust them. But from the interesting
nature of the subject, the committee are induced to ask the indulgence
of a single observation: Politicians have generally agreed that rivers
unite the interests and promote the friendship of those who inhabit
their banks; while mountains, on the contrary, tend to the disunion and
estrangement of those who are separated by their intervention. In the
present case, to make the crooked ways straight, and the rough ways
smooth will, in effect, remove the intervening mountains, and by
facilitating the intercourse of our Western brethren with those on the
Atlantic, substantially unite them in interest, which, the committee
believe, is the most effectual cement of union applicable to the human
race.
All which is most respectfully submitted.
CHAPTER III.
_The Act of Congress Authorizing the Laying Out and Making of the Road._
An Act to Regulate the Laying Out and Making a Road from Cumberland,
in the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio.
_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled_, That the President of the
United States be, and he is hereby authorized to appoint, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, three discreet and disinterested
citizens of the United States, to lay out a road from Cumberland, or a
point on the northern bank of the river Potomac, in the State of
Maryland, between Cumberland and the place where the main road leading
from Gwynn's to Winchester, in Virginia, crosses the river, to the State
of Ohio; whose duty it shall be, as soon as may be, after their
appointment, to repair to Cumberland aforesaid, and view the ground,
from the points on the river Potomac hereinbefore designated, to the
river Ohio; and to lay out in such direction as they shall judge, under
all circumstances the most proper, a road from thence to the river Ohio,
to strike the same at the most convenient place, between a point on its
eastern bank, opposite the northern boundary of Steubenville, in said
State of Ohio, and the mouth of Grave creek, which empties into the said
river a little below Wheeling, in Virginia.
SEC. 2. _And be it further enacted_, That the aforesaid road shall be
laid out four rods in width, and designated on each side by a plain and
distinguishable mark on a tree, or by the erection of a stake or
monument sufficiently conspicuous, in every quarter of a mile of the
distance at least, where the road pursues a straight course so far or
farther, and on each side, at every point where an angle occurs in its
course.
SEC. 3. _And be it further enacted_, That the commissioners shall, as
soon as may be, after they have laid out said road, as aforesaid,
present to the President an accurate plan of the same, with its several
courses and distances, accompanied by a written report of their
proceedings, describing the marks and monuments by which the road is
designated, and the face of the country over which it passes, and
pointing out the particular parts which they shall judge require the
most and immediate attention and amelioration, and the probable expense
of making the same passable in the most difficult parts, and through the
whole distance; designating the State or States through which said road
has been laid out, and the length of the several parts which are laid
out on new ground, as well as the length of those parts laid out on the
road now traveled. Which report the President is hereby authorized to
accept or reject, in the whole or in part. If he accepts, he is hereby
further authorized and requested to pursue such measures, as in his
opinion shall be proper, to obtain consent for making the road, of the
State or States through which the same has been laid out. Which consent
being obtained, he is further authorized to take prompt and effectual
measures to cause said road to be made through the whole distance, or in
any part or parts of the same as he shall judge most conducive to the
public good, having reference to the sum appropriated for the purpose.
SEC. 4. _And be it further enacted_, That all parts of the road which
the President shall direct to be made, in case the trees are standing,
shall be cleared the whole width of four rods; and the road shall be
raised in the middle of the carriageway with stone, earth, or gravel and
sand, or a combination of some or all of them, leaving or making, as the
case may be, a ditch or water course on each side and contiguous to said
carriageway, and in no instance shall there be an elevation in said
road, when finished, greater than an angle of five degrees with the
horizon. But the manner of making said road, in every other particular,
is left to the direction of the President.
SEC. 5. _And be it further enacted_, That said Commissioners shall each
receive four dollars per day, while employed as aforesaid, in full for
their compensation, including all expenses. And they are hereby
authorized to employ one surveyor, two chainmen and one marker, for
whose faithfulness and accuracy they, the said Commissioners, shall be
responsible, to attend them in laying out said road, who shall receive
in full satisfaction for their wages, including all expenses, the
surveyor three dollars per day, and each chainman and the marker one
dollar per day, while they shall be employed in said business, of which
fact a certificate signed by said commissioners shall be deemed
sufficient evidence.
SEC. 6. _And be it further enacted_, That the sum of thirty thousand
dollars be, and the same is hereby appropriated, to defray the expense
of laying out and making said road. And the President is hereby
authorized to draw, from time to time, on the treasury for such parts,
or at any one time, for the whole of said sum, as he shall judge the
service requires. Which sum of thirty thousand dollars shall be paid,
first, out of the fund of two per cent, reserved for laying out and
making roads _to_ the State of Ohio, by virtue of the seventh section of
an act passed on the thirtieth day of April, one thousand eight hundred
and two, entitled, "An act to enable the people of the eastern division
of the territory northwest of the river Ohio to form a constitution and
State government, and for the admission of such State into the Union on
an equal footing with the original States, and for other purposes."
Three per cent. of the appropriation contained in said seventh section
being directed by a subsequent law to the laying out, opening and
making roads _within_ the said State of Ohio; and secondly, out of any
money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, chargeable upon, and
reimbursable at the treasury by said fund of two per cent. as the same
shall accrue.
SEC. 7. _And be it further enacted_, That the President be, and he is
hereby requested, to cause to be laid before Congress, as soon as
convenience will permit, after the commencement of each session, a
statement of the proceedings under this act, that Congress may be
enabled to adopt such further measures as may from time to time be
proper under existing circumstances.
_Approved, March 29, 1806._ TH. JEFFERSON.
* * * * *
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, }
DEPARTMENT OF STATE.}
_To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting_:
I certify that hereto annexed is a true copy of an Act of Congress,
approved March 29, 1806, the original of which is on file in this
Department, entitled: "An Act to regulate the laying out and making a
road from Cumberland, in the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio."
In testimony whereof, I, James G. Blaine, Secretary of State of the
United States, have hereunto subscribed my name and caused the seal of
the Department of State to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this seventh day of March, A. D. 1891,
and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and
fifteenth.
JAMES G. BLAINE.
CHAPTER IV.
_Special Message of President Jefferson--Communicating to Congress the
First Report of the Commissioners--They View the Whole
Ground--Solicitude of the Inhabitants--Points Considered--Cumberland
the First Point Located--Uniontown Left Out--Improvement of the
Youghiogheny--Distances--Connellsville a Promising Town--"A Well
Formed, Stone Capped Road"--Estimated Cost, $6,000 per Mile, exclusive
of Bridges._
No. 220.
NINTH CONGRESS--SECOND SESSION.
January 31, 1807.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
In execution of the act of the last session of Congress, entitled, "An
act to regulate the laying out and making a road from Cumberland, in the
State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio," I appointed Thomas Moore, of
Maryland, Joseph Kerr, of Ohio, and Eli Williams, of Maryland,
commissioners to lay out the said road, and to perform the other duties
assigned to them by the act. The progress which they made in the
execution of the work, during the last season, will appear in their
report now communicated to Congress; on the receipt of it, I took
measures to obtain consent for making the road of the States of
Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, through which the commissioners
propose to lay it out. I have received acts of the Legislatures of
Maryland and Virginia, giving the consent desired; that of Pennsylvania
has the subject still under consideration, as is supposed. Until I
receive full consent to a free choice of route through the whole
distance, I have thought it safest neither to accept nor reject,
finally, the partial report of the commissioners.
Some matters suggested in the report belong exclusively to the
legislature.
TH. JEFFERSON.
* * * * *
The commissioners, acting by appointment under the law of Congress,
entitled "An act to regulate the laying out and making a road from
Cumberland, in the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio," beg leave to
report to the President of the United States, and to premise that the
duties imposed by the law became a work of greater magnitude, and a task
much more arduous, than was conceived before entering upon it; from
which circumstance the commissioners did not allow themselves sufficient
time for the performance of it before the severity of the weather
obliged them to retire from it, which was the case in the first week of
the present month (December). That, not having fully accomplished their
work, they are unable fully to report a discharge of all the duties
enjoined by the law; but as the most material and principal part has
been performed, and as a communication of the progress already made may
be useful and proper, during the present session of Congress, and of the
Legislatures of those States through which the route passes, the
commissioners respectfully state that at a very early period it was
conceived that the maps of the country were not sufficiently accurate to
afford a minute knowledge of the true courses between the extreme points
on the rivers, by which the researches of the commissioners were to be
governed; a survey for that purpose became indispensable, and
considerations of public economy suggested the propriety of making this
survey precede the personal attendance of the commissioners.
Josias Thompson, a surveyor of professional merit, was taken into
service and authorized to employ two chain carriers and a marker, as
well as one vaneman, and a packhorse man and horse, on public account;
the latter being indispensable and really beneficial in excelerating the
work. The surveyors' instructions are contained in document No. 1,
accompanying this report.
Calculating on a reasonable time for the performance of the instructions
to the surveyor, the commissioners, by correspondence, fixed on the
first day of September last, for their meeting at Cumberland to proceed
in the work; neither of them, however, reached that place until the
third of that month, on which day they all met.
The surveyor having, under his instructions, laid down a plat of his
work, showing the meanders of the Potomac and Ohio rivers, within the
limits prescribed for the commissioners, as also the road between those
rivers, which is commonly traveled from Cumberland to Charleston, in
part called Braddock's road; and the same being produced to the
commissioners, whereby straight lines and their true courses were shown
between the extreme points on each river, and the boundaries which limit
the powers of the commissioners being thereby ascertained, serving as a
basis whereon to proceed in the examination of the grounds and face of
the country; the commissioners thus prepared commenced the business of
exploring; and in this it was considered that a faithful discharge of
the discretionary powers vested by the law made it necessary to view the
whole to be able to judge of a preference due to any part of the
grounds, which imposed a task of examining a space comprehending upwards
of two thousand square miles; a task rendered still more incumbent by
the solicitude and importunities of the inhabitants of every part of the
district, who severally conceived their grounds entitled to a
preference. It becoming necessary, in the interim, to run various lines
of experiment for ascertaining the geographical position of several
points entitled to attention, and the service suffering great delay for
want of another surveyor, it was thought consistent with the public
interest to employ, in that capacity, Arthur Rider, the vaneman, who had
been chosen with qualification to meet such an emergency; and whose
service as vaneman could then be dispensed with. He commenced, as
surveyor, on the 22d day of September, and continued so at field work
until the first day of December, when he was retained as a necessary
assistant to the principal surveyor, in copying field notes and
hastening the draught of the work to be reported.
The proceedings of the commissioners are specially detailed in their
general journal, compiled from the daily journal of each commissioner,
to which they beg leave to refer, under mark No. 2.
After a careful and critical examination of all the grounds within the
limits prescribed, as well as the grounds and ways out from the Ohio
westwardly, at several points, and examining the shoal parts of the Ohio
river as detailed in the table of soundings, stated in their journal,
and after gaining all the information, geographical, general and
special, possible and necessary, toward a judicial discharge of the
duties assigned them, the commissioners repaired to Cumberland to
examine and compare their notes and journals, and determine upon the
direction and location of their route.
In this consultation the governing objects were:
1st. Shortness of distance between navigable points on the eastern and
western waters.
2d. A point on the Monongahela best calculated to equalize the
advantages of this portage in the country within reach of it.
3d. A point on the Ohio river most capable of combining certainty of
navigation with road accommodation; embracing, in this estimate, remote
points westwardly, as well as present and probable population on the
north and south.
4th. Best mode of diffusing benefits with least distance of road.
In contemplating these objects, due attention was paid as well to the
comparative merits of towns, establishments, and settlements already
made, as to the capacity of the country with the present and probable
population.
In the course of arrangement, and in its order, the first point located
for the route was determined and fixed at Cumberland, a decision founded
on propriety, and in some measure on necessity, from the circumstance of
a high and difficult mountain, called Nobley, laying and confining the
east margin of the Potomac so as to render it impossible of access on
that side without immense expense, at any point between Cumberland and
where the road from Winchester to Gwynn's crosses, and even there the
Nobley mountain is crossed with much difficulty and hazard. And this
upper point was taxed with another formidable objection; it was found
that a high range of mountains, called Dan's, stretching across from
Gwynn's to the Potomac, above this point, precluded the opportunity of
extending a route from this point in a proper direction, and left no
alternative but passing by Gwynn's; the distance from Cumberland to
Gwynn's being upward of a mile less than from the upper point, which
lies ten miles by water above Cumberland, the commissioners were not
permitted to hesitate in preferring a point which shortens the portage,
as well as the Potomac navigation.
The point on the Potomac being viewed as a great repository of produce,
which a good road will bring from the west of Laurel Hill, and the
advantages which Cumberland, as a town, has in that respect over an
unimproved place, are additional considerations operating forcibly in
favor of the place preferred.
In extending the route from Cumberland, a triple range of mountains,
stretching across from Jenings' run in measure with Gwynn's, left only
the alternative of laying the road up Will's creek for three miles,
nearly at right angles with the true course, and then by way of Jenings'
run, or extending it over a break in the smallest mountain, on a better
course by Gwynn's, to the top of Savage mountain; the latter was
adopted, being the shortest, and will be less expensive in hill-side
digging over a sloped route than the former, requiring one bridge over
Will's creek and several over Jenings' run, both very wide and
considerable streams in high water; and a more weighty reason for
preferring the route by Gwynn's is the great accommodation it will
afford travelers from Winchester by the upper point, who could not reach
the route by Jenings' run short of the top of Savage, which would
withhold from them the benefit of an easy way up the mountain.
It is, however, supposed that those who travel from Winchester by way of
the upper point to Gwynn's, are in that respect more the dupes of common
prejudice than judges of their own case, as it is believed the way will
be as short, and on much better ground, to cross the Potomac below the
confluence of the north and south branches (thereby crossing these
two, as well as Patterson's creek, in one stream, equally fordable in the
same season), than to pass through Cumberland to Gwynn's. Of these
grounds, however, the commissioners do not speak from actual view, but
consider it a subject well worthy of future investigation. Having gained
the top of Allegany mountain, or rather the top of that part called
Savage, by way of Gwynn's, the general route, as it respects the most
important points, was determined as follows, viz.:
From a stone at the corner of lot No. 1, in Cumberland, near the
confluence of Will's creek and the north branch of the Potomac river;
thence extending along the street westwardly, to cross the hill lying
between Cumberland and Gwynn's, at the gap where Braddock's road passes
it; thence near Gwynn's and Jesse Tomlinson's, to cross the big
Youghiogheny near the mouth of Roger's run, between the crossing of
Braddock's road and the confluence of the streams which form the Turkey
foot; thence to cross Laurel Hill near the forks of Dunbar's run, to the
west foot of that hill, at a point near where Braddock's old road
reached it, near Gist's old place, now Colonel Isaac Meason's, thence
through Brownsville and Bridgeport, to cross the Monongahela river
below Josias Crawford's ferry; and thence on as straight a course as the
country will admit to the Ohio, at a point between the mouth of Wheeling
creek and the lower point of Wheeling island.
In this direction of the route it will lay about twenty-four and a half
miles in Maryland, seventy-five miles and a half in Pennsylvania, and
twelve miles in Virginia; distances which will be in a small degree
increased by meanders, which the bed of the road must necessarily make
between the points mentioned in the location; and this route, it is
believed, comprehends more important advantages than could be afforded
in any other, inasmuch as it has a capacity at least equal to any other
in extending advantages of a highway, and at the same time establishes
the shortest portage between the points already navigated, and on the
way accommodates other and nearer points to which navigation may be
extended, and still shorten the portage.
It intersects Big Youghiogheny at the nearest point from Cumberland,
then lies nearly parallel with that river for the distance of twenty
miles, and at the west foot of Laurel Hill lies within five miles of
Connellsville, from which the Youghiogheny is navigated; and in the same
direction the route intersects at Brownsville the nearest point on the
Monongahela river within the district.
The improvement of the Youghiogheny navigation is a subject of too much
importance to remain long neglected; and the capacity of that river, as
high up as the falls (twelve miles above Connellsville), is said to be
equal, at a small expense, with the parts already navigated below. The
obstructions at the falls, and a rocky rapid near Turkey Foot,
constitute the principal impediments in that river to the intersection
of the route, and as much higher as the stream has a capacity for
navigation; and these difficulties will doubtless be removed when the
intercourse shall warrant the measure.
Under these circumstances the portage may be thus stated:
From Cumberland to Monongahela, 66-1/2 miles. From Cumberland to a point
in measure with Connellsville, on the Youghiogheny river, 51-1/2 miles.
From Cumberland to a point in measure with the lower end of the falls of
Youghiogheny, which will lie two miles north of the public road, 43
miles. From Cumberland to the intersection of the route with the
Youghiogheny river, 34 miles.
Nothing is here said of the Little Youghiogheny, which lies nearer
Cumberland; the stream being unusually crooked, its navigation can only
become the work of a redundant population.
The point which this route locates, at the west foot of Laurel Hill,
having cleared the whole of the Allegheny mountain, is so situated as to
extend the advantages of an easy way through the great barrier, with
more equal justice to the best parts of the country between Laurel Hill
and the Ohio. Lines from this point to Pittsburg and Morgantown,
diverging nearly at the same angle, open upon equal terms to all parts
of the Western country that can make use of this portage; and which may
include the settlements from Pittsburg, up Big Beaver to the
Connecticut reserve, on Lake Erie, as well as those on the southern
borders of the Ohio and all the intermediate country.
Brownsville is nearly equi-distant from Big Beaver and Fishing creek,
and equally convenient to all the crossing places on the Ohio, between
these extremes. As a port, it is at least equal to any on the
Monongahela within the limits, and holds superior advantages in
furnishing supplies to emigrants, traders, and other travelers by land
or water.
Not unmindful of the claims of towns and their capacity of reciprocating
advantages on public roads, the commissioners were not insensible of the
disadvantage which Uniontown must feel from the want of that
accommodation which a more southwardly direction of the route would have
afforded; but as that could not take place without a relinquishment of
the shortest passage, considerations of public benefit could not yield
to feelings of minor import. Uniontown being the seat of justice for
Fayette county, Pennsylvania, is not without a share of public benefits,
and may partake of the advantages of this portage upon equal terms with
Connellsville, a growing town, with the advantage of respectable
water-works adjoining, in the manufactory of flour and iron.
After reaching the nearest navigation on the western waters, at a point
best calculated to diffuse the benefits of a great highway in the
greatest possible latitude east of the Ohio, it was considered that, to
fulfill the objects of the law, it remained for the commissioners to
give such a direction to the road as would best secure a certainty of
navigation on the Ohio at all seasons, combining, as far as possible,
the inland accommodation of remote points westwardly. It was found that
the obstructions in the Ohio, within the limits between Steubenville and
Grave creek, lay principally above the town and mouth of Wheeling; a
circumstance ascertained by the commissioners in their examination of
the channel, as well as by common usage, which has long given a decided
preference to Wheeling as a place of embarcation and port of departure
in dry seasons. It was also seen that Wheeling lay in a line from
Brownsville to the centre of the State of Ohio and Post Vincennes. These
circumstances favoring and corresponding with the chief objects in view
in this last direction of the route, and the ground from Wheeling
westwardly being known of equal fitness with any other way out from the
river, it was thought most proper, under these several considerations,
to locate the point mentioned below the mouth of Wheeling. In taking
this point in preference to one higher up and in the town of Wheeling,
the public benefit and convenience were consulted, inasmuch as the
present crossing place over the Ohio from the town is so contrived and
confined as to subject passengers to extraordinary ferriage and delay,
by entering and clearing a ferry-boat on each side of Wheeling island,
which lies before the town and precludes the opportunity of fording when
the river is crossed in that way, above and below the island. From the
point located, a safe crossing is afforded at the lower point of the
island by a ferry in high, and a good ford at low water.
The face of the country within the limits prescribed is generally very
uneven, and in many places broken by a succession of high mountains and
deep hollows, too formidable to be reduced within five degrees of the
horizon, but by crossing them obliquely, a mode which, although it
imposes a heavy task of hill-side digging, obviates generally the
necessity of reducing hills and filling hollows, which, on these
grounds, would be an attempt truly Quixotic. This inequality of the
surface is not confined to the Allegheny mountain; the country between
the Monongahela and Ohio rivers, although less elevated, is not better
adapted for the bed of a road, being filled with impediments of hills
and hollows, which present considerable difficulties, and wants that
super-abundance and convenience of stone which is found in the mountain.
The indirect course of the road now traveled, and the frequent
elevations and depressions which occur, that exceed the limits of the
law, preclude the possibility of occupying it in any extent without
great sacrifice of distance, and forbid the use of it, in any one part,
for more than half a mile, or more than two or three miles in the whole.
The expense of rendering the road now in contemplation passable, may,
therefore, amount to a larger sum than may have been supposed necessary,
under an idea of embracing in it a considerable part of the old road;
but it is believed that the contrary will be found most correct, and
that a sum sufficient to open the new could not be expended on the same
distance of the old road with equal benefit.
The sum required for the road in contemplation will depend on the style
and manner of making it; as a common road cannot remove the difficulties
which always exist on deep grounds, and particularly in wet seasons, and
as nothing short of a firm, substantial, well-formed, stone-capped road
can remove the causes which led to the measure of improvement, or render
the institution as commodious as a great and growing intercourse appears
to require, the expense of such a road next becomes the subject of
inquiry.
In this inquiry the commissioners can only form an estimate by recurring
to the experience of Pennsylvania and Maryland in the business of
artificial roads. Upon this data, and a comparison of the grounds and
proximity of the materials for covering, there are reasons for belief
that, on the route reported, a complete road may be made at an expense
not exceeding six thousand dollars per mile, exclusive of bridges over
the principal streams on the way. The average expense of the Lancaster,
as well as Baltimore and Frederick turnpike, is considerably higher; but
it is believed that the convenient supply of stone which the mountain
affords will, on those grounds, reduce the expense to the rate here
stated.
As to the policy of incurring this expense, it is not the province of
the commissioners to declare; but they cannot, however, withhold
assurances of a firm belief that the purse of the nation cannot be more
seasonably opened, or more happily applied, than in promoting the speedy
and effectual establishment of a great and easy road on the way
contemplated.
In the discharge of all these duties, the commissioners have been
actuated by an ardent desire to render the institution as useful and
commodious as possible; and, impressed with a strong sense of the
necessity which urges the speedy establishment of the road, they have to
regret the circumstance which delays the completion of the part assigned
them. They, however, in some measure, content themselves with the
reflection that it will not retard the progress of the work, as the
opening of the road cannot commence before spring, and may then begin
with marking the way.
The extra expense incident to the service from the necessity (and
propriety, as it relates to public economy,) of employing men not
provided for by law, will, it is hoped, be recognized, and provision
made for the payment of that and similar expenses, when in future it may
be indispensably incurred.
The commissioners having engaged in a service in which their zeal did
not permit them to calculate the difference between their pay and the
expense to which the service subjected them, cannot suppose it the wish
or intention of the Government to accept of their services for a mere
indemnification of their expense of subsistence, which will be very much
the case under the present allowance; they, therefore, allow themselves
to hope and expect that measures will be taken to provide such further
compensation as may, under all circumstances, be thought neither profuse
nor parsimonious.
The painful anxiety manifested by the inhabitants of the district
explored, and their general desire to know the route determined on,
suggested the measure of promulgation, which, after some deliberation,
was agreed on by way of circular letter, which has been forwarded to
those persons to whom precaution was useful, and afterward sent to one
of the presses in that quarter for publication, in the form of the
document No. 3, which accompanies this report.
All which is, with due deference, submitted.
ELI WILLIAMS,
THOMAS MOORE,
DECEMBER 30, 1806. JOSEPH KERR.
CHAPTER V.
_Pennsylvania Grants Permission to Make the Road Through Her
Territory--Uniontown Restored, Gist Left Out, and Washington,
Pennsylvania, Made a Point--Simon Snyder, Speaker of the
House--Pressly Carr Lane, a Fayette County Man, Speaker of the
Senate, and Thomas McKean, Governor--A Second Special Message From
President Jefferson, and a Second Report of the
Commissioners--Heights of Mountains and Hills--On to Brownsville
and Wheeling--An Imperious Call Made on Commissioner Kerr._
An Act authorizing the President of the United States to open a road
through that part of this State lying between Cumberland, in the
State of Maryland, and the Ohio river.
WHEREAS, by an Act of the Congress of the United States, passed on the
twenty-ninth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and six, entitled
"An act to regulate the laying out and making a road from Cumberland, in
the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio," the President of the
United States is empowered to lay out a road from the Potomac river to
the river Ohio, and to take measures for making the same, so soon as the
consent of the legislatures of the several States through which the said
road shall pass, could be obtained: And whereas, application hath been
made to this legislature, by the President of the United States, for its
consent to the measures aforesaid: Therefore,
SECTION 1. _Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met, and it is
hereby enacted by the authority of the same_, That the President of the
United States be, and he is hereby authorized to cause so much of the
said road as will be within this State, to be opened so far as it may be
necessary the same should pass through this State, and to cause the said
road to be made, regulated and completed, within the limits, and
according to the intent and meaning of the before recited Act of
Congress in relation thereto; _Provided, nevertheless_, That the route
laid down and reported by the commissioners to the President of the
United States, be so altered as to pass through Uniontown, in the county
of Fayette, and Washington, in the county of Washington, if such
alteration can, in the opinion of the President, be made, consistently
with the provisions of an act of Congress passed March 29th, 1806, but
if not, then over any ground within the limit of this State, which he
may deem most advantageous.
SEC 2. _And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid_, That such
person or persons as are or shall be appointed for the purpose of
laying out and completing the said road, under the authority of the
United States, shall have full power and authority to enter upon the
lands through which the same may pass, and upon any land near or
adjacent thereto, and therefrom to take, dig, cut and carry away such
materials of earth, stone, gravel, timber and sand as may be necessary
for the purpose of completing, and for ever keeping in repair, said
road; _Provided_, That such materials shall be valued and appraised, in
the same manner as materials taken for similar purposes, under the
authority of this Commonwealth are by the laws thereof, directed to be
valued and appraised, and a certificate of the amount thereof shall, by
the person or persons appointed, or hereafter to be appointed under the
authority of the United States for the purpose aforesaid, be delivered
to each party entitled thereto, for any materials to be taken by virtue
of this act, to entitle him, her or them to receive payment therefor
from the United States.
SIMON SNYDER,
_Speaker of the House of Representatives_.
P. C. LANE,
_Speaker of the Senate_.
_Approved, the ninth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and
seven._
THOMAS M'KEAN.
TENTH CONGRESS--FIRST SESSION.
Communicated to Congress February 19, 1808.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
The States of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia having, by their
several acts consented that the road from Cumberland to the State of
Ohio, authorized by the act of Congress of March 29, 1806, should pass
through those States, and the report of the commissioners communicated
to Congress with my message of January 31, 1807, having been duly
considered, I have approved of the route therein proposed for the said
road as far as Brownsville, with a single deviation since located, which
carries it through Uniontown.
From thence the course to the Ohio, and the point within the legal
limits at which it shall strike that river, is still to be decided.
In forming this decision, I shall pay material regard to the interests
and wishes of the populous parts of the State of Ohio, and to a future
and convenient connection with the road which is to lead from the
_Indian_ boundary near Cincinnati, by Vincennes, to the Mississippi, at
St. Louis, under authority of the act of April 21, 1806. In this way we
may accomplish a continuous and advantageous line of communication from
the seat of the General Government to St. Louis, passing through several
very interesting points, to the Western country.
I have thought it advisable, also, to secure from obliteration the trace
of the road so far as it has been approved, which has been executed at
such considerable expense, by opening one-half of its breadth through
its whole length.
The report of the commissioners herewith transmitted will give
particular information of their proceedings under the act of March
29, 1806, since the date of my message of January 31, 1807, and will
enable Congress to adopt such further measures, relative thereto, as
they may deem proper under existing circumstances.
TH. JEFFERSON.
FEBRUARY 19, 1808.
* * * * *
The undersigned, commissioners appointed under the law of the United
States, entitled "An act to regulate the laying out and making a road
from Cumberland, in the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio," in
addition to the communications heretofore made, beg leave further to
report to the President of the United States that, by the delay of the
answer of the Legislature of Pennsylvania to the application for
permission to pass the road through that State, the commissioners could
not proceed to the business of the road in the spring before vegetation
had so far advanced as to render the work of exploring and surveying
difficult and tedious, from which circumstance it was postponed till the
last autumn, when the business was again resumed. That, in obedience to
the special instructions given them, the route heretofore reported has
been so changed as to pass through Uniontown, and that they have
completed the location, gradation and marking of the route from
Cumberland to Brownsville, Bridgeport, and the Monongahela river,
agreeably to a plat of the courses, distances and grades in which is
described the marks and monuments by which the route is designated, and
which is herewith exhibited; that by this plat and measurement it will
appear (when compared with the road now traveled) there is a saving of
four miles of distance between Cumberland and Brownsville on the new
route.
In the gradation of the surface of the route (which became necessary) is
ascertained the comparative elevation and depression of different points
on the route, and taking a point ten feet above the surface of low water
in the Potomac river at Cumberland, as the horizon, the most prominent
points are found to be elevated as follows, viz.:
Feet. 10ths.
Summit of Wills mountain 581 3
Western foot of same 304 4
Summit of Savage mountain 2022 24
Savage river 1741 6
Summit Little Savage mountain 1900 4
Branch Pine Run, first Western water 1699 9
Summit of Red Hill (after called Shades of Death) 1914 3
Summit Little Meadow mountain 2026 16
Little Youghiogheny river 1322 6
East Fork of Shade Run 1558 92
Summit of Negro mountain, highest point 2328 12
Middle branch of White's creek, at the west foot of Negro
mountain 1360 5
White's creek 1195 5
Big Youghiogheny river 645 5
Summit of a ridge between Youghiogheny river and Beaver
waters 1514 5
Beaver Run 1123 8
Summit of Laurel Hill 1550 16
Court House in Uniontown 274 65
A point ten feet above the surface of low water in the
Monongahela river, at the mouth of Dunlap's creek 119 26
The law requiring the commissioners to report those parts of the route
as are laid on the old road, as well as those on new grounds, and to
state those parts which require the most immediate attention and
amelioration, the probable expense of making the same passable in the
most difficult parts, and through the whole distance, they have to state
that, from the crooked and hilly course of the road now traveled, the
new route could not be made to occupy any part of it (except an
intersection on Wills mountain, another at Jesse Tomlinson's, and a
third near Big Youghiogheny, embracing not a mile of distance in the
whole) without unnecessary sacrifices of distances and expense.
That, therefore, an estimate must be made on the route as passing wholly
through new grounds. In doing this the commissioners feel great
difficulty, as they cannot, with any degree of precision, estimate the
expense of making it merely passable; nor can they allow themselves to
suppose that a less breadth than that mentioned in the law was to be
taken into the calculation. The rugged deformity of the grounds rendered
it impossible to lay a route within the grade limited by law otherwise
than by ascending and descending the hills obliquely, by which
circumstance a great proportion of the route occupies the sides of the
hills, which cannot be safely passed on a road of common breadth, and
where it will, in the opinion of the commissioners, be necessary, by
digging, to give the proper form to thirty feet, at least in the breadth
of the road, to afford suitable security in passing on a way to be
frequently crowded with wagons moving in opposite directions, with
transports of emigrant families, and droves of cattle, hogs, etc., on
the way to market. Considering, therefore, that a road on those grounds
must have sufficient breadth to afford ways and water courses, and
satisfied that nothing short of well constructed and completely finished
conduits can insure it against injuries, which must otherwise render it
impassable at every change of the seasons, by heavy falls of rain or
melting of the beds of snow, with which the country is frequently
covered; the commissioners beg leave to say, that, in a former report,
they estimated the expense of a road on these grounds, when properly
shaped, made and finished in the style of a stone-covered turnpike, at
$6,000 per mile, exclusive of bridges over the principal streams on the
way; and that with all the information they have since been able to
collect, they have no reason to make any alteration in that estimate.
The contracts authorized by, and which have been taken under the
superintendence of the commissioner, Thomas Moore (duplicates of which
accompany this report), will show what has been undertaken relative to
clearing the timber and brush from part of the breadth of the road. The
performance of these contracts was in such forwardness on the 1st
instant as leaves no doubt of their being completely fulfilled by the
first of March.
The commissioners further state, that, to aid them in the extension of
their route, they ran and marked a straight line from the crossing place
on the Monongahela, to Wheeling, and had progressed twenty miles, with
their usual and necessary lines of experiment, in ascertaining the
shortest and best connection of practical grounds, when the approach of
winter and the shortness of the days afforded no expectation that they
could complete the location without a needless expense in the most
inclement season of the year. And, presuming that the postponement of
the remaining part till the ensuing spring would produce no delay in the
business of making the road, they were induced to retire from it for the
present.
The great length of time already employed in this business, makes it
proper for the commissioners to observe that, in order to connect the
best grounds with that circumspection which the importance of the duties
confided to them demanded, it became indispensably necessary to run
lines of experiment and reference in various directions, which exceed an
average of four times the distance located for the route, and that,
through a country so irregularly broken, and crowded with very thick
underwood in many places, the work has been found so incalculably
tedious that, without an adequate idea of the difficulty, it is not easy
to reconcile the delay.
It is proper to mention that an imperious call from the private concerns
of Commissioner Joseph Kerr, compelled him to return home on the 29th of
November, which will account for the want of his signature to this
report.
All of which is, with due deference, submitted, this 15th day of
January, 1808.
ELI WILLIAMS,
THOMAS MOORE.
NOTE.--It will be observed that Keyser's Ridge, which is unquestionably
the highest point on the road, is not mentioned by the commissioners.
This is, no doubt, because, at the date of their report, the locality
did not bear the name Keyser's Ridge, and was known as a peak of Negro
mountain. Soon after the location of the road, one Keyser acquired the
property at the ridge, and it took its name from him. It will also be
observed that the measurement of heights by the commissioners was made
from "a point ten feet above the surface of low water in the Potomac at
Cumberland." A table of heights given in a subsequent chapter, the
authority for which is not ascertainable, differs from that in the
commissioners' report, but their report must be accepted as accurate
from their point of measurement. The other table referred to gives the
heights above the Atlantic and above Cumberland, and embraces more hills
than the commissioners' report.
CHAPTER VI.
_Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, called upon for
Information respecting the Fund Applicable to the Roads mentioned
in the Ohio Admission Act--His Responses._
TENTH CONGRESS--FIRST SESSION.
Communicated to the House of Representatives March 8, 1808.
TREASURY DEPARTMENT. March 3, 1808.
_Sir_: In answer to your letter of the 1st instant, I have the honor
to state:
1st. That the 5 per cent. reserved by the act of 30th April, 1802,
on the net moneys received for public lands in the State of Ohio, sold
since 1st July, 1802, has amounted to the following sums, viz:
From 1st July, 1802, to 30th June, 1803 $ 6,220 00
From 1st July, 1803, to 30th June, 1804 8,810 17
From 1st July, 1804, to 30th June, 1805 13,994 30
From 1st July, 1805, to 30th June, 1806 31,442 20
From 1st July, 1806, to 30th June, 1807 28,827 92
From 1st July, 1807, to 31st December, 1807 (estimated) 15,000 00
-----------
$104,294 59
And that the said 5 per cent. will henceforth probably amount to
$30,000 a year.
2d. That, of the $30,000 appropriated by act of 29th March, 1806, there
has been expended, in laying out the Cumberland road from Cumberland to
Brownsville, about $10,000
That there may be wanted to complete the location, about 5,000
-------
$15,000
3d. That contracts have been made for opening one-half of the breadth of
said road, which, as verbally informed by one of the commissioners, will
require about $3,000, leaving, probably, about $12,000 of the
appropriation for the further improvement of the road.
4th. That the portion of the road actually located and confirmed, no
part of which exceeds an angle of five degrees, extends from the
navigable waters of the Potomac, at Cumberland, to the navigable waters
of the Monongahela, at Brownsville (Red Stone Old Fort), and it is
stated, though no official report has been made to me, at about seventy
miles.
5th. That that road can be considered as a national object only if
completed as a turnpike, whereby all the flour and other produce of the
western adjacent countries may be brought to a market on the Atlantic
shores; and the transportation of all the salt and other commodities and
merchandise whatever, imported from the Atlantic ports to the western
country generally, may be reduced probably one dollar per cwt.
And, Lastly, that the expense of completing that part of the road in
such manner, is estimated at $400,000.
I have the honor to be, respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,
ALBERT GALLATIN.
Hon. John Montgomery, of Maryland, Chairman, etc., in Congress.
COMMITTEE ROOM, Dec. 22, 1808.
_Sir_: The committee appointed on the message of the President,
transmitting a report of the commissioners concerning a road from
Cumberland to Ohio, have directed me to request that you would cause to
be laid before them such information as may be in possession of the
Treasury Department respecting the fund applicable by law to "the laying
out and making public roads leading from the navigable waters emptying
into the Atlantic, to the Ohio," etc. (1) The unexpended balance of the
$30,000 appropriated by the act of the 29th of March, 1806; (2) The
amount of moneys, exclusive of the above, now in the treasury, and in
the hands of the receiver of public moneys, applicable to that object;
and (3) an estimate of the probable amount of moneys that will accrue to
the fund within the two succeeding years.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,
JEREMIAH MORROW.
To the Hon. Secretary of the Treasury.
TENTH CONGRESS--SECOND SESSION.
_Cumberland Road._
Communicated to the House of Representatives, February 16, 1809.
TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Dec. 29, 1808.
_Sir_: In answer to your letter of the 22d instant. I have the honor
to state, for the information of the committee:
1st. That the unexpended balance of the appropriation, made by the act
of March 29, 1806, for opening a road from Cumberland, on the Potomac,
to the river Ohio, amounts to $16,075.15; part of which sum will
probably be wanted in order to complete the location and opening of the
road. It is probable that about $13,000 will remain applicable to making
the road.
2dly. That the total amount received, either at the treasury, or by the
receivers of public moneys on account of roads, and calculated at the
rate of 5 per cent, of the net proceeds of the sales of lands in the
State of Ohio, subsequent to the 30th day of June, 1802, was, on
the 30th day of September last $104,692
leaving, if that mode of calculating be correct, and after
deducting the sum appropriated by the above mentioned act 30,000
--------
a sum applicable to the road of $ 74,692
in addition to the above mentioned unexpended balance of 16,075
--------
and making together a sum of $ 90,767
But if the amount applicable to roads be calculated at the
rate of 2 per cent. only, on the net proceeds of the sales of
lands, this will, on the 30th of September last, have produced
only $ 41,876
from which, deducting the appropriation of 30,000
--------
leaves an unappropriated balance of $ 11,876
which, added to the unexpended balance of the appropriation 16,075
--------
makes an aggregate of only $ 27,951
3dly. That the probable receipts on account of that fund may, for the
two ensuing years, be estimated at $22,500 a year, if calculated at the
rate of 5 per cent., and at $9,000 a year, if calculated at the rate of
2 per cent. on the sales of lands.
I have the honor to be, respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,
ALBERT GALLATIN.
Hon. Jeremiah Morrow, Chairman of the Land Committee.
P.S.--Amount of the 2 per cent. of the net proceeds of the lands
within the State of Ohio:
From 1st July, 1802, to 30th June, 1803, 2 per cent. $ 2,400.00
From 1st July, 1803, to 30th June, 1804, 2 per cent. 3,524.06
From 1st July, 1804, to 30th June, 1805, 2 per cent. 5,597.72
From 1st July, 1805, to 30th June, 1806, 2 per cent. 11,243.55
From 1st July, 1806, to 30th June, 1807, 2 per cent. 9,120.75
From 1st July, 1807, to 30th June, 1808, 2 per cent. 9,902.80
Estimated July, 1808, to 31st October, 1808, 2 per cent. 2,815.60
----------
Total $44,692.48
The sum of $30,000 appropriated per act of 29th of March to be
paid therefrom; of which $13,924.85 seems to have been paid.
A. G.
CHAPTER VII.
_The Life of the Road Threatened by the Spectre of a Constitutional
Cavil--President Monroe Vetoes a Bill for its Preservation and
Repair--General Jackson has Misgivings--Hon. Andrew Stewart comes
to the Rescue._
SPECIAL MESSAGE.
MAY 4, 1822.
_To the House of Representatives_:
Having duly considered the bill, entitled "An act for the preservation
and repair of the Cumberland Road," it is with deep regret (APPROVING,
AS I DO, THE POLICY), that I am compelled to object to its passage, and
to return the bill to the House of Representatives, in which it
originated, under a conviction that Congress do not possess the power,
under the Constitution, to pass such a law. A power to establish
turnpikes, with gates and tolls, and to enforce the collection of the
tolls by penalties, implies a power to adopt and execute a complete
system of internal improvements. A right to impose duties to be paid by
all persons passing a certain road, and on horses and carriages, as is
done by this bill, involves the right to take the land from the
proprietor on a valuation, and to pass laws for the protection of the
road from injuries; and if it exist, as to one road, it exists as to any
other, and to as many roads as Congress may think proper to establish. A
right to legislate for one of these purposes, is a right to legislate
for the others. It is a complete right of jurisdiction and sovereignty
for all the purposes of internal improvement, and not merely the right
of applying money under the power vested in Congress to make
appropriations (under which power, with the consent of the States
through which the road passes, the work was originally commenced, and
has been so far executed). I am of opinion that Congress do not possess
this power--that the States individually cannot grant it; for, although
they may assent to the appropriation of money within their limits for
such purposes, they can grant no power of jurisdiction of sovereignty,
by special compacts with the United States. This power can be granted
only by an amendment to the Constitution, and in the mode prescribed by
it. If the power exist, it must be either because it has been
specifically granted to the United States, or that it is incidental to
some power, which has been specifically granted. If we examine the
specific grants of power, we do not find it among them, nor is it
incidental to any power which has been specifically granted. It has
never been contended that the power was specifically granted. It is
claimed only as being incidental to some one or more of the powers
which are specifically granted. The following are the powers from which
it is said to be derived: (1) From the right to establish post offices
and post roads; (2) From the right to declare war; (3) To regulate
commerce; (4) To pay the debts and provide for the common defence and
general welfare; (5) From the power to make all laws necessary and
proper for carrying into execution all the powers vested by the
Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any
department or officer thereof; (6) And lastly, from the power to dispose
of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory
and other property of the United States. According to my judgment, it
cannot be derived from either of these powers, nor from all of them
united, and in consequence it does not exist. Having stated my
objections to the bill, I should now cheerfully communicate at large the
reasons on which they are founded, if I had time to reduce them to such
form as to include them in this paper. The advanced stage of the session
renders that impossible. Having, at the commencement of my service in
this high trust, considered it a duty to express the opinion that the
United States do not possess the power in question, and to suggest for
the consideration of Congress the propriety of recommending to the
States an amendment to the Constitution, to vest the power in the United
States, my attention has been often drawn to the subject since, in
consequence whereof, I have occasionally committed my sentiments to
paper respecting it. The form which this exposition has assumed is not
such as I should have given it had it been intended for Congress, nor is
it concluded. Nevertheless, as it contains my views on this subject,
being one which I deem of very high importance, and which, in many of
its bearings, has now become peculiarly urgent, I will communicate it to
Congress, if in my power, in the course of the day, or certainly on
Monday next.
JAMES MONROE.
General Jackson, in his famous veto of the Maysville Road bill (May 27,
1830), refers to the Cumberland Road, and to the above message of
President Monroe, in the following terms;
"In the administration of Mr. Jefferson we have two examples of the
exercise of the right of appropriation, which, in the consideration that
led to their adoption, and in their effects upon the public mind, have
had a greater agency in marking the character of the power than any
subsequent events. I allude to the payment of fifteen millions of
dollars for the purchase of Louisiana, and to the ORIGINAL APPROPRIATION
FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CUMBERLAND ROAD; the latter act deriving
much weight from the acquiescence and approbation of three of the most
powerful of the original members of the confederacy, expressed through
their respective legislatures. Although the circumstances of the LATTER
CASE may be such as to deprive so much of it as relates to the actual
construction of the road of the force of an obligatory exposition of the
Constitution, it must nevertheless be admitted that so far as the mere
appropriation of money is concerned, they present the principle in its
most imposing aspect. No less than twenty-three different laws have been
passed through all the forms of the Constitution, appropriating upwards
of two millions and a half of dollars out of the national treasury in
support of that improvement, with the approbation of every president of
the United States, including my predecessor, since its commencement. The
views of Mr. Monroe upon this subject were not left to inference. During
his administration, a bill was passed through both houses of Congress,
conferring the jurisdiction and prescribing the mode by which the
federal government should exercise it in the case of THE CUMBERLAND
ROAD. He returned it with objections to its passage, and in assigning
them, took occasion to say that in the early stages of the government he
had inclined to the construction that it had no right to expend money
except in the performance of acts authorized by the other specific
grants of power, according to a strict construction of them; but that on
further reflection and observation his mind had undergone a change; that
his opinion then was: 'that Congress had an unlimited power to raise
money, and that in its appropriation they have a discretionary power,
restricted only by the duty to appropriate it to purposes of common
defence and of general, not local, National, not State benefit;' and
this was avowed to be the governing principle through the residue of his
administration."
[Illustration: HON. ANDREW STEWART.]
On the 27th of January, 1829, the Hon. Andrew Stewart, of Pennsylvania,
in a vigorous speech on the floor of Congress, repelled the proposition
that the general government was lacking in power and authority to make
and preserve the road, from which the following extracts are taken:
"Mr. Stewart expressed his regret that gentlemen had deemed this a fit
occasion to draw into discussion all the topics connected with the
general power over the subject of internal improvements. If repeated
decisions, and the uniform practice of the government could settle any
question, this, he thought, ought to be regarded as settled. The
foundation of this road (the National or Cumberland) was laid by a
report made by Mr. Giles, the present Governor of Virginia, in 1802, and
was sanctioned the next session by a similar report, made by another
distinguished Virginian (Mr. Randolph), now a member of this House--it
was the offspring of Virginia, and he hoped she would not now abandon it
as illegitimate. Commenced under the administration of Mr. Jefferson, it
had been sanctioned and prosecuted by every president, and by almost
every Congress, for more than a quarter of a century.* * * *
"Without roads and canals, of what avail was it to the people of the
West to possess a country, abounding with all the essential elements of
wealth and prosperity--of what avail was it to have a country abounding
with inexhaustible mines of coal and ore; to possess a fruitful soil and
abundant harvests, without the means of transporting them to the places
where they were required for consumption? Without a market, the people
of the West were left without a motive for industry. By denying to
this portion of the Union the advantages of internal improvements, you
not only deprive them of all the benefits of governmental expenditures,
but you also deprive them of the advantages which nature's God intended
for them. Possessing the power, how, he asked, could any representative
of the interior or western portions of this Union vote against a policy
so essential to the prosperity of the people who sent him here to guard
their rights, and advance their interests? * * * *
"The right of this government to construct such roads and canals as were
necessary to carry into effect its mail, military, and commercial
powers, was as clear and undoubted as the right to build a post office,
construct a fort, or erect a lighthouse. In every point of view the
cases were precisely similar, and were sustained and justified by the
same power." * * * *
The power, said Mr. S., "to establish post offices and post roads,"
involves the power and duty of transporting the mail, and of employing
all the means necessary for this purpose. The simple question, then, was
this: Are roads necessary to carry the mail? If they were, Congress had
expressly the right to make them, and there was an end to the question.
Roads were, he contended, not only necessary to carry into effect this
power, but they were absolutely and indispensably necessary; you cannot
get along without them, and yet we are gravely told that Congress have
no right to make a mail road, or repair it when made! That to do so
would ruin the States and produce consolidation--ruin the States by
constructing good roads for their use and benefit; produce consolidation
by connecting the distant parts of the Union by cheap and rapid modes of
inter-communication. If consolidation meant to confirm and perpetuate
the Union, he would admit its application, but not otherwise. But we are
told that the _States_ will make roads to carry the mails. This was
begging the question. If the States would make all the roads required to
carry into effect our powers, very well; but if they did not, then we
may undoubtedly make them ourselves. But it was never designed by the
framers of the Constitution that this government should be dependent on
the States for the means of executing its powers: "its means were
adequate to its ends." This principle was distinctly and unanimously
laid down by the Supreme Court in the case already referred to: "No
trace," says the Chief Justice, "is to be found in the Constitution of
an intention to create a dependence of the government of the Union on
the States for the execution of the powers assigned to it--its means are
adequate to its ends. To impose on it the necessity of resorting to
means it cannot control, which another government may furnish or
withhold, would render its course precarious, the result of its measures
uncertain, and create a dependence on other governments, which might
disappoint the most important designs, and is incompatible with the
language of the Constitution." And this was in perfect harmony with the
constant and uniform practice of the government. * * *
Mr. S. begged gentlemen to turn their attention for a moment to the
statute book, and see what the practice of the government had been; what
had been already done by Congress in virtue of this power of
"establishing post offices and post roads." In 1825 an act had been
passed, without a word of objection, which went infinitely further than
the bill under consideration. His colleague (Mr. Buchanan) was then a
member of this House, and, no doubt, voted for it. His eloquence was
then mute--we heard nothing about States rights, spectres, and sedition
laws. This bill, regulating the post office establishment, not only
created some thirty or forty highly penal offences, extending not only
over the Cumberland Road, but over every other road in the United
States, punishing with severest sanctions, even to the taking away the
liberty and the lives of the citizens of the States, and requiring the
State courts to take cognizance of these offences and inflict these
punishments. This was not all: this act not only extended over all the
mail roads, but all other roads running parallel with them, on which all
persons are prohibited, under a penalty of fifty dollars, from carrying
letters in stages or other vehicles performing regular trips; and
authorizing, too, the seizure and sale of any property found in them for
the payment of the fines. The same regulations applied to boats and
vessels passing from one town to another. Compare that bill with the one
under debate. This bill had two or three trifling penalties of ten
dollars, and was confined to one road of about one hundred and fifty
miles in extent, made by the United States, while the other act, with
all its fines and forfeitures, pains and penalties, extended not only to
all the mail roads in the United States, but also to all parallel roads;
yet no complaint was then heard about the constitutionality of this law,
or the dreadful consequences of carrying the citizens hundreds of miles
to be tried. Under it no difficulties had ever been experienced, and no
complaint had ever been heard. There had been no occasion for appointing
United States Justices and creating federal courts to carry this law
into effect, about which there was so much declamation on this occasion:
this was truly choking at gnats and swallowing camels. To take away
_life_ by virtue of the post office power for robbing the mail, is
nothing; but to impose a fine of ten dollars for wilfully destroying a
road which has cost the government a million of dollars, is a dreadful
violation of State rights! An unheard of usurpation, worse than the
sedition law; and went further towards a dissolution of the Union than
any other act of the government. Such were the declarations of his
colleague; he hoped he would be able to give some reason for thus
denouncing this bill, after voting for the act of 1825, which carried
this same power a hundred times further than this bill, both as regards
the theatre of its operations, and the extent of its punishments.
* * * * *
Having thus established, and, as he thought, conclusively, the right to
construct roads and canals for mail and military purposes, he came next
to say a few words on the subject of those which appertained to the
express power of "regulating commerce with foreign nations and _among
the several States_." This power carried with it, as a necessary
incident, the right to construct commercial roads and canals. From this
grant Congress derived exactly the same power to make roads and canals
that it did sea-walls, light-houses, buoys, beacons, etc., along the
seaboard. If the power existed over the one it existed over the other in
every point of view; the cases were precisely parallel; it was
impossible to draw a distinction between them. This power was essential
to every government--there was no government under the sun without it.
All writers on national law and political economy considered the right
to construct roads and canals as belonging to the commercial power of
all governments. * * *
There were great arteries of communication between distant divisions of
this extensive empire, passing through many States or bordering upon
them, which the States never could and never would make. These works
were emphatically national, and ought to be accomplished by national
means.
He instanced the road now under consideration--it passed through
Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, yet neither of these States would
have given a dollar to make it. It passed mostly through mountainous and
uninhabited regions. He adverted to the Potomac, Ohio, and Mississippi
rivers. Important as these were to all the States, yet they were the
internal concerns of none--they were mere boundaries to which the States
would give nothing, while they had so many objects exclusively internal
requiring all their means. For these reasons he was utterly opposed to
the project of dividing the surplus revenue of the general government
among the several States; this would be to surrender the national means
which the people had confided to this purpose to mere local and
sectional objects, while those truly national would remain forever
unprovided for. He did not claim for this government the power to make
roads and canals for all purposes. The powers of this government and of
the States were distinct and well defined. To the national government
belonged, under the Constitution, the power of making national roads and
canals for national purposes. To the States belonged the power of
providing for state and local objects. The roads and canals projected
and executed by the States and private companies were often highly
important in a national point of view; and to such, in his opinion, this
government ought always to afford aid in a proportion corresponding with
the interest the nation had in their accomplishment. When individuals
were willing to go before and vest millions of their private funds in
works strictly and truly national, connecting the remote sections of the
Union together (of which we had two distinct examples, one in this
district and the other in a neighboring city, Baltimore), could this
government, charged with the care and guardianship of all the great
interests of the nation, look on with cold indifference? Was it not our
duty to lend a helping hand to encourage, to cheer, and to sustain them
in their noble and patriotic efforts? * * * *
Mr. Stewart said he would now proceed to answer, as briefly as possible,
some leading arguments urged by gentlemen in opposition to the bill
under consideration. His colleague (Mr. Buchanan) had said that this
bill proposed a greater stretch of power than the sedition law. This was
an argument "ad captandum vulgus." He would not do his colleague the
injustice to suppose that he was so ignorant of the Constitution of his
country as seriously to address such an argument to the understanding of
this House. The bill under consideration was necessary to carry into
effect the express power of transporting the mail. What power of this
government was the sedition law intended to carry into effect? None. It
was therefore not only clearly unconstitutional on this ground, but it
went directly to abridge the freedom of the press, and, of course, was a
plain and palpable violation of that provision in the Constitution,
which declares that "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of
speech or of the press." Now, if his colleague could show any provision
in the Constitution in the slightest degree impugning the right of
Congress to pass this bill, then he might have some excuse for offering
such an argument, otherwise he had none. The gentleman had, in a very
labored effort, endeavored to prove that this government had no kind of
jurisdiction or control whatever over this road. Yet his own amendment
recognized the existence of the very power which he denies. By his
amendment he proposes what? That this government shall cede the roads to
the States, with the power to erect gates and collect as much toll as
was necessary to keep it in repair. But his whole argument went to prove
that Congress did not possess the very power which his amendment assumed
and proposed to the States. The gentleman's amendment, and his speech
therefore, were at open war with each other, and would perhaps both
perish in the conflict. Certainly, both could not survive--one or the
other must fall.
The gentleman, proceeding in his argument, had assumed premises which
nobody would admit, and then, with an air of great triumph, he drew
conclusions which even his own premises would not support. He takes for
granted that this government, with all its mail, military, and
commercial powers, has no more right to make a road to carry these
powers into effect, through a State, than any individual possessing none
of these powers would have. Thus, having assumed what was utterly
inadmissible, he triumphantly inquires whether an individual, having
obtained leave to make a road through another's land, could put up gates
and exact toll? The gentleman says, surely not. But he said, surely yes,
unless expressly prohibited by the contract. Suppose, by permission, I
build a mill, said Mr. S., upon that gentleman's estate, and construct a
bridge and turnpike road to get to it, have not I as much right to
demand toll at the bridge as at the mill? Most undoubtedly; so that the
gentleman's premises and his conclusions were alike fallacious and
unsound. This position had been taken by both the gentlemen from
Virginia (Mr. Barbour and Mr. Archer), to whom he would make the same
reply. A most extraordinary argument had been advanced against military
roads: the public enemy may get possession of them in war!! Was it
possible that an American statesman could, at this time of day, urge
such an argument? It might be addressed to a set of timid savages,
secure in the midst of the wilderness. The enemy get possession of our
roads, and therefore not make them! Such cowardly arguments would
deprive us of every possible means of defence. The enemy, it might be
said with equal propriety, may get our ships, our forts, our cannon, our
soldiers, and therefore we ought not to provide them. What would the
brave freemen of this country say to the men who would deny them roads
to travel on, lest the enemy might take them from us in war? They would
reply, with Spartan magnanimity, "Let them come and take them." * * *
A great deal has been said on the subject of jurisdiction; that, if it
existed at all, it must be exclusive; that it could not attach to soil,
and much metaphysical refinement of this sort, which had little to do
with the subject. On this point, the only sound and practical rule was,
that this government had a right to assume such jurisdiction over their
roads as was necessary for their preservation and repair by such means
as should be deemed most expedient, leaving everything beyond that to
the States. Thus far the Constitution declared the legislation of
Congress to be "the supreme law of the land, anything in the
constitution and laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding."
This left to the laws of the States, the right to punish all offences
and other acts committed upon the road, in the same manner as though
they had occurred in any other part of their territory. Such had been
the uniform practice of the government in executing all its powers up to
the present time, and no complaint had ever been made or inconvenience
experienced.
It has been universally conceded on all hands in this debate, that the
consent of the States could not confer any jurisdiction or powers on
this government beyond what it had derived from the Constitution. This
was too clear a proposition to admit of doubt. Yet the names of
Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Gallatin, were introduced and relied on.
Did gentlemen forget that Mr. Gallatin was the very first man that ever
suggested the plan for making the Cumberland road, and that it had been
sanctioned and actually constructed under the administrations of
Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe? Their opinions were thus reduced to
practice, which was the best evidence in the world--"By their fruits
shall ye know them."
CHAPTER VIII.
_State Authority prevails--The Road surrendered by Congress--The
erection of Toll Gates authorized--Commissioners appointed by the
States to receive the Road--They wrangle over its bad condition,
and demand that it be put in thorough repair by Congress, before
the States will accept it--Old and familiar names of the
Commissioners--The Road accepted by the States._
At the session of the year 1831, the Pennsylvania Legislature passed a
bill, which was approved April 4th, of that year, by George Wolf,
governor, the preamble to, and the first, and part of the second, and
all of the tenth sections of which read as follows:
"Whereas, that part of the Cumberland Road lying within the State of
Pennsylvania is in many parts in bad condition for want of repairs,
and as doubts have been entertained whether the United States have
authority to erect toll gates on said road, and collect toll; and as a
large proportion of the people of this commonwealth are interested in
said road, and its constant continuance and preservation; therefore,
SECTION 1. _Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in general assembly met, and it
is hereby enacted by authority of the same_; That as soon as the
consent of the government of the United States shall have been
obtained, as hereinafter provided, WILLIAM F. COPLAN, DAVID DOWNER, of
Fayette county, STEPHEN HILL, BENJAMIN ANDERSON, of Washington county,
and THOMAS ENDSLEY, of Smithfield, Somerset county, shall be, and they
are hereby appointed commissioners, a majority of whom shall be
sufficient to transact business, who shall hold their offices for
three years after the passage of this act, after which the right of
appointing said commissioners shall vest in the governor of this
commonwealth, to build toll houses, and erect toll gates at suitable
distances on so much of the Cumberland Road as lies within the State
of Pennsylvania; _Provided_, that if any one or more of the
commissioners should die, resign, or refuse to serve, the Governor
shall appoint one or more other commissioners to fill the vacancies so
happening; _And provided, also_, that nothing herein contained shall
be construed to prevent the Governor from re-appointing the
commissioners named in this act, if he thinks proper.
SEC. 2. That for the purpose of keeping so much of the said road in
repair as lies within the State of Pennsylvania, and paying the
expense of collection and other incidental expenses, the
commissioners shall cause to be erected on so much of the road as
passes within this State at least six gates, and that as soon as said
gates and toll-houses shall be erected, it shall be the duty of the
toll collectors, and they are hereby required to demand and receive
for passing the said gates, the tolls hereafter mentioned; and they
may stop any person riding, leading or driving any horses, cattle,
sulky, chair, phæton, cart, chaise, wagon, sleigh, sled or other
carriage of burden or pleasure from passing through the said gates,
until they shall respectively have paid for passing the same, that is
to say: (Here follow the rates).
SEC. 10. That this act shall not have any force or effect, until the
Congress of the United States shall assent to the same, and until so
much of the said road as passes through the State of Pennsylvania, be
first put in a good state of repair, and an appropriation made by
Congress for erecting toll-houses and toll-gates thereon, to be
expended under the authority of the commissioners appointed by this
act: _Provided_, The legislature of this State may at any future
session thereof, change, alter or amend this act, provided that the
same shall not be so altered or amended, as to reduce or increase the
rates of toll hereby established, below or above a sum necessary to
defray the expenses incident to the preservation and repair of said
road, for the payment of the fees or salaries of the commissioners,
the collectors of tolls, and other agents. _And provided further_,
That no change, alteration, or amendment, shall ever be adopted, that
will in any wise defeat or affect, the true intent and meaning of this
act."
Ohio was a little in advance of Pennsylvania in accepting the road, and
less exacting in her terms. The legislature of that State, on the 4th of
February, 1831, passed an act authorizing the acceptance, without
requiring that the road should be put in repair as a condition
precedent. On the 23d of January, 1832, Maryland, by an act of her
legislature, agreed to accept the road upon the same condition required
by Pennsylvania, and on the 7th of February, 1832, Virginia accepted in
an act similar to that of Ohio. On the 3d of July, 1832, Congress
declared its assent to the above mentioned laws of Pennsylvania and
Maryland in these words: "To which acts the assent of the United States
is hereby given, to remain in force during the pleasure of Congress,"
and on the 2d of March, 1833, assented to the act of Virginia with a
similar limitation.
[Illustration: TOLL HOUSE.]
* * * * *
JANUARY 19, 1835.
REFERRED TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE HOUSE, TO
WHICH IS COMMITTED BILL NO. 221.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in
Congress assembled:_
The undersigned beg leave to represent that they have been appointed
commissioners, under the act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, to
accept from the general government so much of the Cumberland Road as
lies within the limits of that State, and erect toll gates as soon as
it is put in such a state of repair as is required by the provisions of
that act. That they have every disposition to relieve the government
from the burden of the road, so soon as they can feel themselves
justified, under the law, in doing so; but they beg leave to
respectfully represent that the road has not yet been put in that
condition that would enable them to accept of it.
On some parts no more than six inches, and west of the Monongahela
river, three inches only of metal have been put upon it, and it is
apparent that this will be totally insufficient to preserve it under the
heavy travel upon that road. Besides, the bridges throughout the whole
road remain untouched. Under these circumstances, it is impossible for
us, in the discharge of our duty, to accept of it; and we would most
earnestly but respectfully urge upon Congress the propriety of making
such an appropriation as will complete the repairs in a substantial
manner, as required by the act of our own legislature. We will not
undertake to prescribe the amount which may be necessary; but, to
satisfy your honorable bodies that we are disposed to go as far as the
faithful discharge of our duty will permit, we hereby pledge ourselves,
so soon as Congress shall make an appropriation of so much money as may
be estimated by the department as necessary for that purpose, to accept
of the road, and have toll gates erected without delay. We, therefore,
beg leave most respectfully to submit to the wisdom of your honorable
bodies to determine whether it will be better to make the necessary
appropriation to justify us in accepting the road, and relieving the
government from all future charge, or to keep it in its present state,
subject to annual appropriations for its preservation, as heretofore.
THO. ENDSLEY.
STEPHEN HILL.
DAVID DOWNER.
WILLIAM F. COPLAN.
January 7, 1835. BENJAMIN ANDERSON.
* * * * *
_To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States in Congress assembled_:
The undersigned beg leave to represent that they have been appointed
commissioners, under the act of Assembly of the State of Maryland, to
report to the Governor and Council of said State when that part of the
Cumberland Road which lies within the limits of said State shall have
been put in that state of repair contemplated by the act of Congress,
and the act of Assembly of the State of Maryland, agreeing to receive
the road and to keep it in repair; that they will with great pleasure
report the road to the Governor and Council the moment they can with
propriety do so. And they beg leave to represent that they feel
authorized to say that the Governor and Council will, with great
pleasure, authorize them to receive the road whenever it shall be put in
that condition which would justify the State in accepting it. They
further represent that the road has not yet been put in that condition
that would justify them in advising the State to receive it. On some
parts of the road no more than three and a half inches of metal has been
put, and it is evident that this covering will be totally insufficient
to preserve it in a fit state for use under the heavy travel which is
constantly passing over it. The bridges also, throughout the whole
distance, remain in a ruinous and dilapidated condition. They further
respectfully represent that the new location from Cumberland, through
the narrows of Wills creek and along Braddock's run, a distance of
upwards of six miles, has had but three and a half inches of metal upon
it; and the bridge over Wills creek and the bridges over Braddock's run
were to be permanent stone structures, by the act of Assembly of
Maryland, authorizing the President to change the location of the road.
The undersigned are also advised that it is contemplated by the
superintendent to put up wooden structures for bridges, in lieu of the
stone bridges required by the act of Assembly of Maryland, authorizing
the change in the location of the road, which would be in direct
violation of that act. They further represent that the floors of wooden
bridges must be removed every two or three years, and the whole
structure of the bridges themselves must be built every twenty or
twenty-five years.
Under these circumstances it would be impossible for the undersigned, in
the discharge of their duty, to recommend to the State the acceptance of
the road. And they would most earnestly but respectfully urge upon
Congress the propriety of making such an appropriation as will be
sufficient to complete the repairs on the old road, and to finish the
new location in a substantial manner, as contemplated and required by
the act of the Legislature of Maryland. The undersigned will not
undertake to prescribe the sum which may be necessary for this purpose;
but, to satisfy your honorable bodies that they are disposed to go as
far as the faithful discharge of their duty will permit, they hereby
pledge themselves that so soon as Congress shall make an appropriation
of so much money as may be estimated by the department as necessary for
the completion of the repairs of the old road, and the finishing of the
road on the new location, together with the construction of permanent
stone bridges, they will forthwith report to the Governor and Council
the state of the road, and recommend that the State receive such part of
the road as may be completed, and to collect tolls on it to keep it in
repair, thereby relieving the United States from any further expense for
repairs on such part. They further beg leave most respectfully to submit
to the wisdom of your honorable bodies to determine whether it will be
better to make the necessary appropriation to enable them to recommend
the road as in a fit condition to be received by the State, and thus
relieve the government from any further burden, or to let it remain in
its present state, subject to appropriations for its preservation, as
heretofore.
JOHN HOYE,
MESHECK FROST,
Commissioners of the State of Maryland.
On April 1, 1835, Pennsylvania accepted the road in the following
brief terms, embodied in the third section of an act of her legislature
of that date: "The surrender by the United States of so much of the
Cumberland Road as lies within the State of Pennsylvania is hereby
accepted by this State, and the commissioners to be appointed under
this act are authorized to erect toll gates on the whole or any part of
said road, at such time as they may deem it expedient to do so."
Maryland, Virginia, and Ohio also accepted the road, and thenceforth
it was, and remains under the control of the several States
through which it passes.
CHAPTER IX.
_Plan of Repairs--The Macadam System adopted--Mr. Stockton offers his
services--Capt. Delafield made Superintendent--The Road in a bad
condition--Permission asked to deviate from instructions, and
refused--Capt. Giesey lifted the old road bed indiscriminately--
First defects to be remedied--Lieut. Mansfield at Uniontown--Plan
emphasized in notices for contracts--Free passage for water a first
consideration._
ENGINEER DEPARTMENT,
WASHINGTON, July 23, 1832.
_Lt. J. K. F. Mansfield, Corps of Engineers_:
SIR: By direction of the Secretary of War, you have been assigned,
temporarily, to the superintendence of the repairs of the Cumberland
Road east of the Ohio river; and in the discharge of your duties in this
capacity, you will be governed by the following instructions:
1st. Respecting the parts to be repaired. The extreme limits within
which your operations will be confined are, the point of intersection of
the road with the western boundary line of the State of Pennsylvania,
and Cumberland, in the State of Maryland; the dividing line between
these States will be considered as dividing the line of the road to be
repaired into two divisions, and the division within the State of
Pennsylvania will be subdivided into six equal sections, and that within
the State of Maryland, into two; then, having made a thorough
examination of each of these sections, with a view to make yourself
acquainted with their exact condition, you will classify them in the
order of their condition, placing the worst first, the next worst
second, and so on, making the best the last. You will then make an
estimate for the repairs of each of these sections, to ascertain how far
the appropriation, which is one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, will
go toward repairing the whole road. Separate contracts will then be made
for executing the repairs, commencing with No. 1, and passing regularly
through the sections, as classified, to the best section; and these
repairs will be prosecuted with as much despatch as the nature of the
case will allow. Should you deem it advisable, in letting out these
sections, to retain any portion of them which may seem to require but
slight repairs, and which repairs could be executed with greater economy
by having overseers and laborers to act under your immediate direction,
you are at liberty to do so, bearing in mind, however, that whenever the
repairs of the road can be made with equal economy, it is the wish of
the department that they should be made by contract. As soon as one or
more of these sections are finished, you will notify the commissioners
appointed to receive this road by the laws of Pennsylvania and Maryland,
approved, that of the former on the 4th day of April, 1831, and that of
the latter on the 4th day of January, 1832, that these sections are
ready to be turned over to the State, and you will accordingly turn them
over.
2d. Respecting the mode of repairs. In order to insure efficient and
permanent repairs, they are to be made on that which is called the
Macadam system; that is to say, the pavement of the old road must be
entirely broken up, and the stones removed from the road; the bed of
which must then be raked smooth, and made nearly flat, having a rise of
not more than three inches from the side to the center, in a road thirty
feet wide; the ditches on each side of the road, and the drains leading
from them, are to be so constructed that the water cannot stand at a
higher level than that which is eighteen inches below the lowest part of
the surface of the road; and, in all cases, when it is practicable, the
drains should be adjusted in such a manner as to lead the water entirely
from the side ditches. The culverts are to be cleared out, and so
adjusted as to allow the free passage of all water that may tend to
cross the road.
Having thus formed the bed of the road, cleaned out the ditches and
culverts, and adjusted the side drains, the stone, reduced to a size not
exceeding four ounces in weight, must be spread on with shovels, and
raked smooth. The old material should be used only when it is of
sufficient hardness, and no clay or sand must be mixed with the stone.
In replacing the covering of stone, it will be found best to lay it on
in strata of about three inches thick, admitting the travel for a short
interval on each layer, and interposing such obstructions from time to
time as will insure an equal travel over every portion of the road;
taking care to keep persons in constant attendance to rake the surface
when it becomes uneven by the action of the wheels of carriages. In
those parts of the road, if any, where materials of good quality cannot
be obtained from the road in sufficient quantity to afford a course of
six inches, new stone must be procured to make up the deficiency to that
thickness; but it is unnecessary, in any part, to put on a covering of
more than nine inches. None but limestone, flint or granite, should be
used for the covering, if practicable; and no covering should be placed
upon the bed of the road till it has become well compacted and
thoroughly dried. At proper intervals, on the slopes of hills, drains or
paved catch-waters must be made across the road, when the cost of
constructing culverts would render their use inexpedient. These
catch-waters must be made with a gradual curvature, so as to give no
jolts to the wheels of carriages passing over them; but whenever the
expense will justify the introduction of culverts, they will be used in
preference; and in all cases where the water crosses the road, either in
catch-waters or under culverts, sufficient pavements and overfalls must
be constructed to provide against the possibility of the road or banks
being washed away by it.
The masonry of the bridges, culverts, and side walls, must be repaired,
when it may be required, in a substantial manner, and care must be taken
that the mortar used be of good quality, without admixture of raw clay.
All the masonry to be well pointed with hydraulic mortar, and in no case
must the pointing be put on after the middle of October; all masonry
finished after this time will be well covered, and pointed early in the
following spring. Care must be taken, also, to provide means for
carrying off the water from the bases of walls, to prevent the action of
frost on their foundations; and it is highly important that all
foundations in masonry should be well pointed with hydraulic mortar to a
depth of eighteen inches below the surface of the ground.
As the laws on the subject of this road do not seem to justify a
deviation from the original location, you will be careful to confine
your operations to the road as you find it located; but, as it is
believed that its axis may be dropped without adding much to the expense
in those places where its inclination with the horizon exceeds four
degrees, you are authorized, under the exercise of a sound discretion,
to make this change.
In making your contracts, it must be understood that you are to have the
general supervision of their execution, and that it will be your duty to
see that all labor and materials (provided for by them) be applied in
the most faithful and substantial manner. These contracts must provide
in their specifications for all the work that can be anticipated, and
should it happen that additional stipulations are afterwards found to be
necessary for either workmanship or supplies not originally provided
for, the facts must be reported to this department, and, with its
approbation, if obtained, new contracts will be made for the additional
services and supplies required; and it must be distinctly understood by
the contractors that no payment will be made for work not provided for
by their contracts.
Mr. L. W. Stockton, of Uniontown, has been engaged on this road and is
intimately acquainted with every part of it, as well as with the
adjacent country; and, as he has offered his services, you would do well
to call upon him and avail yourself of them in any capacity that may
seem to you best.
As soon as it can be done, a drawing of the whole road, with details of
construction, will be forwarded, to be filed in this office.
You will take up your headquarters at any point on the road where your
services may appear to you to be most needed; and, as soon as you shall
have completed such an examination of the road as will place you in
possession of the information necessary to draw up the specifications to
your contracts, you will invite proposals for those contracts through
the public prints. These contracts will be closed with as little delay
as the interest of the road will allow, when the work will be commenced,
and the contracts, together with the proper estimates, forwarded to
this office. For the mode of making these estimates, keeping your
accounts, and conducting your correspondence with this office, you are
referred to the regulations of the Engineer Department.
Captain Delafield has been assigned to the permanent superintendence of
the repairs of this road, and has been directed to join you on or before
the 1st of October next. You will, therefore, immediately on his
arrival, turn over to him these instructions, together with all the
papers and public property that may be in your possession relating to
the road. As soon as you shall have completed the necessary examinations
on the road, you will commence and continue the repairs simultaneously
in both States.
You will make application for such instruments and funds as may appear
necessary to enable you to execute the foregoing instructions.
I am, &c.,
C. GRATIOT,
Brigadier General.
* * * * *
CUMBERLAND, MD., August 1, 1832.
_Sir_: I have this evening returned from a general reconnoissance
of the road in this State. I find the road in a shocking condition, and
every rod of it will require great repair; some of it is now almost
impassable. I purpose leaving here to-morrow, on a particular
measurement and survey of the road as it is, and the requisites to put
it in complete repair.
The object of this communication is to request to be permitted
to deviate, according to circumstances, from so much of my instructions
as requires the old bed in all cases to be lifted, and the rise in
the middle three inches; for there are parts of the road where the top
of the old bed is full low, and where it will be more expensive, and
less firm, to remove the old bed and fill in with earth, than to bring
stone and Macadamize on the top of the old bed to the thickness of
nine inches; and there are cases on the sides of the mountains where
a greater rise than three inches, such, for instance, as some parts of it
now have, which is more advantageous than a less one to confine the
water to the gutters in cases of torrents, and thereby preventing a
general sweep over the whole road, which would carry off the smallest
stuff of a Macadamized road.
The repairs made by Mr. Giesey, about two years since, have the
radical fault resulting from having lifted the old road indiscriminately,
and not giving sufficient rise to the center for a mountainous country.
I have the honor to be, sir,
Very respectfully, your most obedient,
J. K. F. MANSFIELD,
Lieut. of Engineers.
Gen. Chas. Gratiot, Chief Engineer.
* * * * *
ENGINEER DEPARTMENT,
WASHINGTON, August 9, 1832.
_Sir_: Your letter of the 1st instant, requesting permission to deviate,
according to circumstances, from so much of the instructions of the
department to you, on the subject of the repairs of the Cumberland Road,
as requires the old road in all cases to be lifted, and the rise in the
middle to be made three inches, has been under consideration, and I have
to inform you that this permission cannot be granted.
In withholding the sanction of the department to any deviation from the
prominent features of your instructions on the subject of these repairs,
it may, perhaps, be proper to state, for your information, the views of
the department on this subject.
By referring to the report of Mr. Weaver, a printed copy of which you
have in your possession, who made an examination of the Cumberland Road
in 1827, you will perceive that the mode of constructing it was that of
digging a trench, or of sinking the bed of the road below the natural
surface of the ground; that this trench was filled with large stones,
and that these were covered with stones a size smaller, and so on. By
this construction, it was intended that the weight of the carriages
passing over the road should be supported by the large stones, and that
the smaller stones were only intended to present an even surface for the
easy passage of vehicles over it. The great objections to this
construction are, that the bed being lower than the surface of the
ground on each side, the ditches can hardly ever be sunk sufficiently
deep to intercept the passage of water from the ground adjacent to the
road to the ditch or trench in which the road is made; this water, by
keeping the bed constantly wet, would cause the heavy stones of the
first layer to sink into the ground, and thus break up the surface of
the road, and allow the free passage of water through the covering
itself. In the winter, the frost acting upon the bed, rendered wet by
the free passage of water to it in every direction, would heave the
stones to such a degree that the road in a little time would be
perfectly impassable; and if any evidence, in addition to that presented
by the testimony of the most experienced and approved road builders,
were necessary to convince the department that the present dilapidated
state of the road under your charge is owing entirely to the operation
of the causes above alluded to, it is believed that that evidence is
found in the report made by Capt. Delafield, who inspected the repairs
of this road made by Mr. Giesey. By pursuing the course suggested in
your letter, it is believed that these objections and difficulties would
still obtain, and that in a little time, however faithfully the repairs
might be made on the top of the large stones, the road would be in as
bad order as it is at present, since the great cause of these evils
would remain, viz.: that of having the bed which supports the stones,
and which in fact should be the real support of the traffic on the
road, lower than the neighboring ground.
It is the intention of the department that the defects of the first
construction of the road shall be remedied in its repair, and as it is
believed that the adoption, as nearly as practicable, of the Macadam
system, in all its important features, presents the only means of
effecting this remedy, and as this system forms the basis of your
instructions, it is recommended that they be departed from as little as
possible.
It is by no means the intention of the department to take from you all
discretion in the discharge of your duties; such a course would defeat
the object had in view in sending an officer of engineers on the road;
but it is believed to be highly important that the exercise of this
discretion should be limited to an extent that will insure the adoption
of such principles and rules as cannot fail to render these repairs
permanent. For these principles and rules, you are referred to Mr.
Macadam's work on the construction and repairs of roads, a copy of which
is in your possession. In removing the metal from the old road, whenever
hollows present themselves in the old bed, it is recommended that they
be filled with earth; indeed, the whole bed of the road should be
elevated, and its form given to it, before any of the covering of stone
be replaced. The earth necessary for this may be taken from the ditches,
or even from the sides of the road, where it can be done without
encroaching upon the privileges of persons residing on the road.
I am, &c., &c.,
C. GRATIOT.
Lt. J. K. F. Mansfield,
Corps of Engineers, Uniontown, Pa.
EXTRACTS FROM NOTICES FOR CONTRACTS.
PLAN OF REPAIRS.
The plan for repair is to lift the pavement of the old road in all
cases, and deposit the stone off the bed; then to repair the culverts,
clear the drains, ditches, and culverts, so as to admit the free passage
of water, and graduate the bed of the road, so that, when well packed by
travel or other means, it will be three inches higher in the middle than
at either side, for a bed of thirty feet. Having thus formed the bed of
the road, the hard stone (if there be any) of the old road, broken to a
size not exceeding four ounces, is to be placed on the bed of the road
to a breadth of twenty feet, and a thickness not exceeding nine inches,
and in cases where there is a deficiency of the old material, limestone
or whinstone is to be procured to supply the deficiency to the required
thickness of nine inches. Catch-waters and hollow-ways to be permanently
constructed on the sides of hills, and at other places where it will be
thought necessary by the superintending engineer, but in no case to
exceed one in every twelve rods. In those sections where pieces of
hitherto Macadamized road are included, the sand is to be taken off,
and, before new metal is added, the surface loosened with a pick. The
metal added to be three inches thick in the cases heretofore
Macadamized.
JOS. K. F. MANSFIELD,
Lieutenant Corps of Engineers.
* * * * *
ENGINEER DEPARTMENT,
WASHINGTON, August 27, 1832.
_Sir_: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 24th
inst., inclosing two printed advertisements for proposals to contract
for the repairs of the Cumberland Road under your charge.
In answer, the department would call your attention to your remarks
under the head "Plan of Repairs," and would suggest that, instead of
removing the stones from the bed of the road before the drains, ditches,
and culverts are put in repair, to allow the free passage of water from
the road, this latter operation should be first attended to, to the end
that the removal of the stone from the road might be effected without
the fear of being annoyed by the accumulation of water from heavy rains.
Besides, thus preparing the drains, ditches, &c., in the first place,
would enable the bed to become perfectly dry by the time the stones are
prepared to be replaced.
I am, &c.,
C. GRATIOT.
Lt. J. K. F. Mansfield,
Corps of Engineers, Uniontown, Pa.
CHAPTER X.
_Lieut. Mansfield superseded by Capt. Delafield--The Turning of Wills
Mountain--Contractors not Properly Instructed--Capt. Delafield
suggests a Change of Plan, and enforces his Views by Copious
Quotations from Macadam--He is Permitted to exercise his own
Discretion--Too much sand between Uniontown and
Cumberland--Operations at Wills Creek suspended--A Collision with
the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company--The difficulty adjusted, and
operations resumed._
ENGINEER DEPARTMENT,
WASHINGTON, October 5, 1832.
_Sir_: On the arrival of Captain Delafield, of the engineers, on the
Cumberland Road in Pennsylvania and Maryland, you will hand to him the
enclosed communication, which assigns to him the superintendence of the
repairs of that road which have heretofore been conducted under your
supervision. You will, also, turn over to him all the funds, books,
papers, and public property in your possession appertaining to this
road, and close your account with it.
Very respectfully, &c.,
By order: WM. H. C. BARTLETT,
Lieut, and Assistant to Chief Engineer.
Lieut. J. K. F. Mansfield,
Corps of Engineers, Uniontown, Pa.
* * * * *
Uniontown, December 13, 1832.
_Sir_: The surveys of a route for turning Wills mountain by the valley
of Braddock's run and Wills creek are progressing, being retarded only
by the weather. I have examined the whole route, and can confirm the
most satisfactory account you may have heard of it. The ground over
which the road will pass is a uniform inclined plane, requiring very few
culverts, two small bridges over Braddock's run of about fifteen feet
span each, with side hill in no other part than about 300 yards in the
"Narrows" of Wills creek, where a most simple and expedient plan will be
to use the level and smooth bottom of the creek for the road, by
building a wall not to exceed ten feet in height, thus throwing the
stream on the opposite bank, peculiarly well formed for this
construction, being a low bottom of alluvion. The idea of cutting into
the mountain would be expensive, and no better than throwing the creek
from its present bed.
On the arrival of Mr. Pettit, I shall divide the road into four
sections, giving him one. The present condition of the road is most
unpromising. Nearly every contractor has formed his bed in the valley
made by the removal of the old pavement, the consequence of which is,
that, with the mild season and rainy weather, the bed is not drained,
nor can it be, until the side roads are cut down to the bottom of the
stone strata--a measure I directed as the only means of correcting the
evil. Time, and the headstrong obstinacy of some of the contractors,
have prevented much of the work being so attended to. All the contracts
made by Lieut. Mansfield distinctly specify that the road for 30 feet in
width shall be graded in such manner as to avoid this difficulty; yet in
carrying the contracts into effect, the superintendents have, in no
instance, instructed the contractors in the proper course. They have, in
most instances too, permitted the stone to be broken on the road; the
consequences of this are, much sand and dirt in the metal, and a bed
graded without proper attention. This is the more remarkable, as in my
report on the work executed two years since by one of the present
superintendents, these errors were pointed out as serious evils, yet
they are not corrected. It must be expected, therefore, that all that
part of the road now under construction will be very indifferently made,
and by no means such as the Macadam system calls for. By the time the
superintendents acquire a knowledge of their business, the present
contracts will be completed. Instead of giving out any more of the work
under the present system, as I had contemplated and advertised, I shall
postpone doing so until I am better assured that the work can be
properly executed. I look anxiously for Mr. Pettit, trusting his
intelligence may correct some of the defects in the section he will be
called upon to superintend.
To instruct the superintendents in their duties, I shall be compelled to
have printed a manual or primer, with a few lithographic sections, that
the sight may aid the mind in a proper understanding of the business. To
persevere in the present plan, where neither contractors,
superintendents, nor laborers, understand their business, is highly
inexpedient, and I shall forthwith commence maturing a system that must
be productive of more good with less money, or it were better to leave
the work undone, for I am satisfied that durability can not be looked
for under the present system.
My first business will be to draw the operations to a close, and then
endeavor to bring about the correction. You will be apprised of my views
before carrying any of them into effect, observing that, in anticipation
of a change, I have suspended making the contracts alluded to in my
communication of the 27th ultimo.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RICH'D DELAFIELD,
Captain of Engineers.
Brig. Gen. Charles Gratiot,
Chief Engineer.
* * * * *
BALTIMORE, May 6, 1833.
_Sir_: The instructions of the department of the 23d July last, relating
to the method of repairing the Cumberland Road east of the Ohio, are
founded upon principles upon which I differ in opinion, and beg leave to
request your reconsideration, involving, as they do, an expenditure of
not less than $250,000, when compared with what I judge to be the most
judicious method of making the repairs.
It is in relation to the propriety of breaking up the old bed of the
road in all cases. I apprehend the department was not aware that the bed
is a substantial, yet rough pavement, and not formed of loose, detached
masses of quarry stone thrown together, without order. It is important
to consider this particular when examining the authorities on road
making.
My own views are that it is decidedly preferable to retain the old
pavement in all cases where its continuity is unbroken, even mending
small parts that may be deranged, and Macadamizing over it. In this, I
think, I am borne out by Macadam, Dean, Telford, and Farey, whose ideas
on the subject are annexed, as extracted from "Macadam on Roads."
The only two arguments against the method I propose are, first, that the
metal will grind to dust by being placed over large stone. In answer to
which, I say, that the road passing through a rocky country, even after
removing the pavement, there still remains a rocky foundation; and where
the pavement is well bedded in sand or clay, we have all the elasticity
necessary from the clay or sand bed through the pavement. In support of
which, see the sample of metal taken from the road through Uniontown,
where the under strata have not worn or crushed an iota, presenting
angles as sharp as the day they were first placed there. Were the metal
placed upon an unyielding rock, it would doubtless soon grind to dust;
but placing it upon a pavement laid in sand or gravel, preserves the
elasticity so necessary for this kind of road. Second: That large stone,
placed under Macadam metal, will work to the surface. This is doubtless
true when detached pieces are surrounded by the metal, but with a
pavement the case is very different. I find pieces of this Cumberland
Road, repaired as far back as 1827, by Mr. Ewing, over the old pavement,
in perfect order to this day; as, also, some parts done in this way by
Giesey in 1829, that are much better than any of the repairs he made at
the same time; and a piece through Uniontown, by the authorities of the
place, in 1830, remains in perfect order.
I have been led to reflect upon this subject from learning that the Ohio
road had cut through and was impassable at certain places during the
months of February and March, and seeing the state of the road under my
supervision between Cumberland and Wheeling, comparing the parts
repaired last season, those under Giesey, Ewing, and the town
authorities, with the old pavement that has stood sixteen years without
a cent of money in repair, and to this day is a very good wagon road,
rough, it is true, yet never cutting through during the fall, winter,
or spring, where the pavement is continuous. To throw away so firm a
foundation I cannot think advisable, and beg you to reflect upon the
subject and favor me with your views.
The road in Ohio has worn six years (nearly) without repairs, and was
impassable this spring. The old Cumberland Road has worn sixteen years,
and mile after mile has never been known to cut through at any season.
Parts of it covered with Macadamized metal, and worn for five years, are
in fine order, and present a very smooth surface, never having cut
through. Other parts, where the old pavement has been removed and
Macadamized, were impassable during the spring after three years' wear.
We have to bear in mind the impossibility of keeping the ditches and
drains open in the mountains during the winter. Ice forming in the
drains will, of course, throw the melting snows on the surface of the
road, which is destructive to a Macadamized road on clay or sand,
whereas, if on the old pavement, it has strength enough to resist the
travel until either dried by frost, or sun. This is a consideration that
the English road-makers had not to consider with the same weight. As to
keeping the drains open, and the road surface free from water in the
winter, I conceive it impracticable in the mountains; hence the further
propriety of preserving a foundation that will secure a firm road at all
seasons, even if the wear should prove some five or ten per cent. more
rapid, which I do not even think will be the case on the plan suggested
of Macadamizing upon a pavement, and not on an unyielding, rocky bottom.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RICHARD DELAFIELD,
Captain of Engineers.
Brig. Gen. C. Gratiot,
Chief Engineer.
EXTRACTS FROM "MACADAM ON ROADS," MADE BY CAPTAIN DELAFIELD IN SUPPORT
OF HIS VIEWS RELATING TO THE PAVEMENT FORMING THE BED OF THE
"CUMBERLAND ROAD EAST OF THE OHIO."
Page 39.--"It would be highly unprofitable to lift and relay a road,
even if the materials should have been originally too large. The road
between Cirencester and Bath is made of stone too large in size. In this
case I recommend cutting down the high places," &c.
Page 40.--"A part of the road in the Bath district is made of freestone,
which it would be unprofitable to lift. Other cases of several kinds
have occurred where a different method must be adopted, but which it is
impossible to specify, and must be met by the practical skill of the
officer, and who must constantly recur to general principles."
Page 42.--"The price of lifting a road, &c., leaving the road in a
finished state, has been found in practice to be from 1d. to 2d. per
superficial yard, lifted four inches deep."
Page 47.--"It is well known to every skillful and observant road-maker,
that if strata of stone of various sizes be placed on a road, the
largest stones will constantly work up." (This is in no manner
applicable to a pavement, and a road made even in the manner he alludes
to was lifted only four inches deep.--R. D.)
Page 105.--"How deep do you go in lifting the roads? That depends upon
circumstances, but I have generally gone four inches deep. I take up the
materials four inches, and, having broken the large pieces, I put them
back again."
"Does the plan which you have mentioned, of breaking up the roads, apply
to gravel roads, or only to those roads composed of hard stones? In
gravel roads, and in some other roads, it would be impossible to break
them up to advantage; and, in several places, I should think it
unprofitable to lift a road at all. I did not order the road near
Reading to be lifted, but I directed, whenever a large piece of flint
was seen, it should be taken up, broken, and put down again. I am
speaking of a gravel road now."
Page 107.--"There are other cases besides that of gravel, in which I
should think it unprofitable to lift a road. The road between ---- and
---- is made of very soft stone, and is of so brittle a nature, that if
it were lifted it would rise in sand, and there would be nothing to lay
down again that would be useful. I should not recommend lifting of
freestone roads, for the same reason, because it would go so much to
sand that there would be very little to lay down again. I will explain
what I have done to the road between Cirencester and Bath. I was obliged
to lift a little of the sides of the road, in order to give it shape,
but in the center of the road we 'shoved it.' It was before in the state
which the country people call gridirons: that is, it was in large
ridges, with long hollows between, and we cut down the high part to a
level with the bottom of the furrows, and took the materials and sifted
them at the side of the road, and returned what was useful to the
center."
(So far we have the views of Mr. Macadam. From the same work I continue
to quote.--R. D.)
Page 153.--"Considering the very great traffic upon Whitechapel road, is
it your opinion (addressed to Mr. Farey) that it would be advantageous
to pave any part of that road? I think it would be desirable to pave it
within some feet of the footpath," &c.
Page 158.--"In the neighborhood of London the materials that are to be
procured are of too tender and brittle a nature to endure the wear of
the heavy carriages. I, therefore, am of the opinion that it would be
proper to pave the sides of all the principal entrances into London."
Page 166.--"James Walker says, 'The traffic upon the Commercial rail
road, both up and down, is very great. I am quite sure that the expense
of this road would have been very much greater, probably much more than
doubled, if it had not been paved. The road has been paved for about
sixteen years, and the expense of supporting it has been small. During
the thirteen years that the East India dock branch has been paved, the
paving has not cost £20.'"
Page 167.--"But as the paving is always preferred for heavy carriages,"
&c.
Page 172.--"The thickness ought to be such, that the greatest weight
will not effect more than the surface of the shell, in order to spread
the weight which comes upon a small part only of the road over a large
portion of the foundation."
Page 173.--"If the foundation is bad, breaking the bottom stone into
small pieces is expensive and injurious, upon the principle I have above
described, for the same reason that an arch formed of whole bricks, or
deep stones, is preferred to one of the same materials broken into
smaller pieces, for, in some countries, the materials will admit of the
foundation of the road being considered as of the nature of a flat arch,
as well as being supported by the strata directly under it. But the
error of laying stones in large pieces upon the surface is more common
and more injurious."
Page 183.--"James Dean says, 'Near to great towns it would be highly
advantageous if the center of the road, for about twelve feet in width,
were to be paved with hard, well-squared stones, nine inches deep.'"
Page 188.--"Thomas Telford, Esq., says, 'The improvements made in North
Wales I beg leave to submit as models for the roads through hilly
countries. Great pains have been taken in constructing firm and
substantial foundations for the metallic part of the roadway.'"
Page 189.--"There has been no attention paid to constructing a good and
solid foundation for the roadway."
Page 192.--"Are you of the opinion that it would be advisable or
practicable to procure, from any particular part of the country, better
materials, so as to form perfect roads without the necessity of paving
them? That these materials could be procured, is evident; but I am
satisfied that the most economical and preferable mode would be by the
means of paving."
* * * * *
ENGINEER DEPARTMENT.
WASHINGTON. May 8, 1833.
_Sir_: Your communication of the 6th instant, submitting your views in
regard to lifting the old bed in prosecuting the repairs of the
Cumberland road east of the Ohio, and requesting a reconsideration of so
much of the instructions of the department of the 23d July last as
relates to this matter, has just been received. That part of the
instructions alluded to, which requires that the old bed shall, in all
cases, be taken up, will be considered as suspended, and you are hereby
authorized to exercise your discretion in this particular.
Very respectfully, &c.,
C. GRATIOT, Brig. General.
Capt. R. Delafield,
Corps of Engineers, Uniontown, Pa.
* * * * *
UNIONTOWN, PA., June 11, 1833.
_Sir_: I find upon an examination of the National Road, under your
superintendence, from Cumberland to this place, that too great a portion
of sand and other perishable stone has been allowed to be put on it. In
almost the whole distance, little or no regard has been paid to the
keeping the side drains open, at least sufficiently so to carry the
water freely from the road. The culverts are too few and small,
particularly on the long slopes; and the manner of constructing the
hollow-ways and catch-waters is defective. These errors of construction
cause the water, in many places, to pass over the road, to its rapid
destruction. I am aware of the difficulties you have to contend with
under the contract system, and that to this cause most of the evils
complained of may be traced. As it is all important that they should be
remedied, as soon as practicable, you will enforce the early completion
of the several contracts, according to their conditions, after making
due allowance for the stoppage arising from your order for suspending
operations during last winter. On the completion of the road, should it
be found not to possess the requisite properties to secure its
permanency, you will make such additions under your own agency as will
place it in the condition contemplated by the government, before turning
it over to the States. Not less than six inches of lime or sandstone
should be put upon the surface, and where lime is exclusively used, the
thickness should not be less than nine inches. The side ditches should,
when practicable, be at least eighteen inches below the bed of the road;
and when this cannot be done, culverts, 2'×3', should be constructed at
convenient distances to carry off the water, which, in no instance,
should be allowed to rise above the level of the bed of the road. The
catch-waters should be constructed in such a manner, that while they
subserve the purposes for which they are intended, they should admit the
passage of vehicles without jolting; and, in every case, with a view to
prevent their being washed into deep gullies. As this frequently happens
when they are constructed with broken stone, it will be proper to pave
them with shingle stones, if to be had; or, when this cannot be
obtained, with limestone firmly imbedded in the road. It should
especially be observed that, before breaking up the road for the
reception of the metal, the ditches should be first prepared, and then
the culverts. This will keep the roadway dry for travel, and better
prepare it for the reception of its covering. As it is found
impracticable to keep the travel from the center of the road, and the
deep ruts that are formed, then, as a consequence, I would recommend,
instead of the present system of blocking, that rakers should be
constantly employed to preserve the transverse profile. If it does not
come within the spirit of the contract, that this labor should be
performed by the contractors, you will hire men to do it yourself. This
operation, in addition to the draining system before recommended, will,
it is presumed, preserve the road from further ruin, and place it in a
condition to receive its last coat of limestone. Finally, while
studying due economy in your administration of the affairs of the road,
you should constantly bear in mind that the wishes of the government are
to have a superior road, both as regards workmanship, and the quality of
the materials used in its construction. With this understanding, it is
expected that you will avail yourself of all the facilities within your
reach to effect, in a satisfactory manner to yourself and the public at
large, the great end proposed--the construction of a road unrivaled in
the country. These are the views and special instructions of the
Secretary of War.
I am, respectfully, &c.,
C. GRATIOT, Brig. General.
Capt. R. Delafield,
Corps of Engineers, Uniontown, Pa.
* * * * *
ENGINEER DEPARTMENT,
WASHINGTON, July 16, 1833.
_Sir_: You will forthwith cause all operations to cease on that
part of the new location of the Cumberland Road on the east of Wills
creek. You shall in a few days receive further instructions on this
subject.
Very respectfully, &c.,
WM. H. C. BARTLETT,
Lieut. and Assistant to Chief Engineer.
Capt. R. Delafield,
Corps of Engineers, Uniontown, Pa.
* * * * *
ENGINEER DEPARTMENT,
WASHINGTON, July 20, 1833.
_Sir_: On the 16th you were advised to delay any further action as to
the location of the Cumberland Road until you were again written to.
Mr. Purcell reports to the Board of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
Company that the road being at the site now chosen will occasion an
increased cost to the Canal Company of upwards of $16,000. It is very
desirable to avoid this state of things, for, as their charter claims
precedence, it would necessarily create a demand upon the government
commensurate with the injury sustained.
Major Eaton, president of the Canal Company, will direct Mr. Purcell,
the engineer, to proceed forthwith to Cumberland, with you, to ascertain
the best mode of making the location by which to avoid any injury or
increased expense to the Canal Company. You are instructed to confer
freely with Mr. Purcell, holding the object suggested steadily in view,
and give such direction to the location of the road as may best attain
this object. This done, you will forward a plan of the route agreed on,
and a minute detail of everything, particularly what increased expense
to the Canal Company will probably be occasioned. On receiving your
report, the case will be considered here, and you be advised immediately
of the course to be pursued.
Very respectfully, &c., &c.,
By order: WM. H. C. BARTLETT,
Lieut. and Assistant to Chief Engineer.
Capt. R. Delafield,
Corps of Engineers, Uniontown, Pa.
* * * * *
PHILADELPHIA, July 26, 1833.
_Sir_: The order of your department of the 16th instant was received by
me at Cumberland, and its injunctions forthwith carried into effect. The
communication of the 20th has since been received, explanatory of that
order. In relation to locating that part of the National Road that might
probably interfere with the Canal Company, measures were taken to
procure from the Company such information as would enable me to locate
the road without coming in contact with any part of the Canal route;
and, so far as the information was furnished, I have endeavored so to
do. I enclose copies of the letter and information received from the
president of the company, in reply to a request for such information as
would enable me to "ascertain at what point the Chesapeake and Ohio
Company contemplate erecting their dam across Wills creek, and to what
height it will be raised above low water. The information desired is for
enabling me to locate the bridge for the road at a point, and elevate
its arches to such a height that the interest of the Canal Company will
not be effected; and that I may at the same time, fulfill the objects
contemplated by the law authorizing the new location."
In reply to which you will perceive "the location of the canal is that
recommended by General Bernard, and the Board of Internal Improvement,
over which he presided," and that it was proposed to feed the canal at
Cumberland, and below by a dam to be erected across the Potomac about a
mile above Cumberland. The water of the Potomac was to be carried over
Wills creek twenty-one or two feet above ordinary water in the creek.
Such is the information furnished me by the president of the Canal
Company, and by which I have been governed in the location of the road.
On the eastern side of Wills creek the grading is finished to the site
of the bridge; on the western side I have directed no work to be
executed that can have any bearing upon this point.
You perceive it has been my study to avoid conflicting with the
interests of the Canal Company; but, from the want of knowing the exact
location of their works, will occasion to them an increased expense, as
reported by Mr. Purcell, of 16,000 dollars if the bridge is constructed
at the point now chosen. If, then, the Company will cause the Canal to
be located through the gap of Wills mountain, and give me bench marks
from which to ascertain the cuttings and embankments they propose
making, I will then locate the road on such ground as not to interfere
in any manner with their operations, and such as shall be most
advantageous for the public interest. I judge the communication of the
department was written under the impression that an interference with
the works of the Canal Company was unavoidable, and that some compromise
of advantages and disadvantages would necessarily have to be made. Such,
however, I do not conceive to be the case.
I have located as high up the creek as would give room for a six horse
team to turn off and on a bridge at right angles with the stream with
facility. If the Canal Company make choice of this ground, I have but to
make a bridge oblique with the current, and thus avoid the work of the
Canal Company. To ascertain this, it is essential that the Canal Company
should make choice of the ground and locate their works; after having so
done, if they will favor me with plans and sections, with bench marks of
reference of the part in the valley of the creek, the road shall be made
not to interfere with their interest, which has always been looked upon
by me as claiming precedence.
I have here pointed out a course for the consideration of the
department, differing materially from the one ordered by the letter of
the 20th instant. First, in consideration of its not being acquainted
with the nature of the case, and, next, with its requiring me to perform
a service in no way necessary to a proper understanding of the interests
of the Government connected with the road; to do which, surveys, levels,
calculations of excavation and embankment must be made, that the time of
neither myself nor the officers associated with me could accomplish.
What I ask is, information from the Company as to their own works
solely. It will suffice for all purposes connected with the location of
the road.
Be pleased to address me at New Castle, and on any matter relating to
the section of the road near Cumberland requiring immediate attention, a
copy of the communication forwarded to Lieutenant Pickell, at that
place, would prevent any delay; Lieutenant P. being the officer to whom
I have assigned this particular section of the road.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RICH'D DELAFIELD.
Captain of Engineers.
Brig. Gen. Charles Gratiot.
Chief Engineer.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON, D. C., May 10, 1832.
_Sir_: Your letter to Mr. Ingle, the clerk of the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal Company, has been handed over to me, and I am authorized, on the
part of the president and directors, to express to you our thanks for
the considerate regard you have paid to the location adopted by the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, for the part of their work which
will pass through Cumberland. The location adopted is that recommended
by General Bernard, and the Board of Internal Improvement, over which he
presided.
When the proposed change of the Cumberland Road immediately above the
town was under consideration of the Committee on Roads and Canals, I
suggested the very precaution you now practice, which was to see that no
conflict would arise in hereafter conducting the canal over its long
established route, by a conflict with the location of the improved road,
the value of which I know well how to appreciate. The hill above
Cumberland, which it is proposed to avoid, was the worst between that
place and Wheeling, if reference be had to the inclination of its
surface. General Bernard proposed to feed the canal at Cumberland, and
for some distance below it, as far, at least, as the mouth of the South
branch, by means of a dam to be erected at a ledge of rocks crossing the
Potomac about a mile above Cumberland. The dam was to be elevated so
high as to conduct the canal over Wills creek at Cumberland, with an
elevation of twenty-one or twenty-two feet above ordinary water in the
creek. This was to be effected by an aqueduct across the creek. I
presume at this season of the year the ledge of rocks is visible above
Cumberland. Enclosed I send you extracts from General Bernard's report,
which accompanied the President's message to Congress of December 9,
1826, and is now a congressional record. From that you may perhaps infer
all that is essential to your purpose of avoiding a collision with the
rights of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, who have adopted for
the location of the canal General Bernard's report.
C. F. MERCER,
President of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company.
EXTRACTED--PAGE 55, DOC. NO. 10, 19TH CONGRESS,
2D SESSION.--EXECUTIVE PAPERS.
"The difficulties of this passage (down Wills creek) are great, and
continue for more than a mile. The ground then becomes favorable
(_i.e._, in descending Wills creek from the west), permitting the canal
to pass at the outskirts of Cumberland, to join with the eastern
section. Adjoining Cumberland, the canal will receive a feeder from the
Potomac for a supply below, and more especially to complete what is
necessary in relation to the first subdivision of the eastern section.
"This feeder is proposed to be made navigable, in order to accommodate
the trade of the Potomac above Cumberland. Its length is one mile, its
width at the water line thirty feet, its depth four feet. At its point
of departure from the Potomac, a basin is formed in the bed of the
river, by means of a dam erected at the first ledge above Cumberland.
"This basin, comprehending an extent of about eight miles, will afford a
constant supply of water, and also accommodate the canal trade of the
Potomac. The levees around the basin, the dam, the guard lock of the
feeder, and its aqueduct over Wills creek, are included in the estimate
of this subdivision.
"In the table of quantities and cost, this feeder is made to cost a very
large sum (two or three words illegible in the MS.) if the dam above
Cumberland is supposed to be ever changed from the above location. The
aqueduct over Wills creek is computed to cost $41,601; the length of the
aqueduct, seventy yards; the number of arches, three; the span of the
arch, thirty feet; the height of the piers, sixteen feet."
The above is a true copy.
C. F. MERCER.
May 10, 1833.
* * * * *
ENGINEER DEPARTMENT,
WASHINGTON, August 10, 1833.
_Sir_: The Secretary of War has just returned to this place, having
passed over the Cumberland Road east of the Ohio. He feels great
interest in this road, and is anxious that the operations on it shall
Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/41799