The Daily Gate City

Mr. Thomas M. Monroe, a leading business man of Dubuque, is in our city. He has a hobby as every man of earnest purposes and real achievements always has. His hobby is a great and feasible enterprise one that is based in time to be a thing of accomplishment. His enterprise is this. To him it is apparent that the great want of our State is cheap transportation for our heavy products to the markets of the world. That the most feasible plan to secure this end is to provide a direct and continuous line of water communication between the Mississippi River and Atlantic Ocean, in latitude favorable to the safe carriage of grain in bulk, and yet comparatively free from obstruction by frost.

Such a communication, he believes, could be secured most readily by the Ohio, Kanawha and James Rivers to Norfolk, Virginia.

It appears that for years prior to the war of the Revolution, the importance of this connection had occupied the serious consideration of Washington. His plan embraced a double connection between the waters of the Mississippi Valley-the one by the Potomac River, on the east, and the Monongahela on the west, to the point where Pittsburgh now stands; and the other by the James River, on the east, and the Kanawhas on the west, to the Ohio, at its mouth, two hundred and eighty-four miles below Pittsburgh.

The first idea seems to have been suggested to him, or at least to have ripened to a conviction, as to the northern improvement, by his trip, when quite a young man, and as early as the year 1768, from Jamestown to Fort Du Quesne (Pittsburgh), as a messenger from Robert Dinwiddie, the then Governor of Virginia. Upon the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, General Washington was so impressed with the importance of a water line across the Alleghanies, that during the year 1784, he made a personal exploration of the country, traveling for that purpose, many hundreds of miles. The result of that exploration and subsequent action of the Governor and Legislature is thus given in the 20th annual report of the President and Directors of the James River and Kanawba Canal Company.

He kept a journal, in which were minutely recorded his conversations with every intelligent person whom he met, respecting the facilities for internal navigation afforded by the rivers which have their sources among the Alleghany Mountains, and flow thence either to the east or west. He returned to Mount Vernon on the 4th day of October, and on the 10th of the same month communicated the results of his observations to the Governor of Virginia, Benjamin Harrison, a warm personal friend of Washington, and the father of William Henry Harrison, ninth President of the United States. In his letter introducing the subject, General Washington says: "I shall take the liberty now, my dear sir, to suggest a matter, which would (if I am not too short-sighted a politician) mark your administration as an important era in the annals of this country, if it should be recommended by you and adopted by the assembly." And then proceeds: It has long been my decided opinion that the shortest, easiest and least expensive communication with the invaluable and extensive country back of us would be by one of the rivers of this State, which have their sources in the Apalachian Mountains.

Governor Harrison communicated the subject to the Legislature, with a Message, as follows:

"In Council, October 18, 1784.

"To the Honorable Speaker of the House of Delegates:

…The opening of the navigation of our western waters is of such immense consequence to the State that it has engaged the attention of our late commander-in-chief, and induced him to favor me with his opinion on the subject, which I enclose and request the favor of you to lay it before the Assembly. His reasoning is so conclusive that I have not a doubt of the utility of the measure remaining with me, and shall feel myself extremely happy if the Assembly should coincide with me in the opinion, and set on foot the surveys recommended as a necessary preparatory step to the undertaking."
He then presents various considerations in its support.

It is proposed by this improvement, to connect the Ohio River at the mouth of the Kanawha, with the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, a distance of 686 miles by a water line, of capacity sufficient for boats of 300 to 450 tons burthen, capable of conveying from 10,000 to 15,000 bushels of wheat, to pass the whole distance without breakage of bulk. Of this, the first 151 miles from the Ocean to Richmond will also be navigable for sail vessels and steam boats. From the Ocean to the mouth of the James at the head of Hampton Roads, is about 26 miles, of this last named distance. And this will probably be the point of departure for ocean-bound vessels; Hampton Roads furnishing the most capacious, and in every respect the best harbor on the Atlantic coast; thus making the connecting line only about 661 miles.

From Richmond the canal extends westward 278 miles, passing through the range of the Blue Ridge and Alleghany Mountains to the Green Brier River, a tributary of the Kanawha: From the intersection of the canal with the Green Brier River, there is to be a slack water navigation, by means of locks and dams, down through New River and the Kanawha, 119 miles: thence, the channel of the Kanawha is to be deepened to its mouth, a further distance of 89 miles.

To this great enterprise Mr. Monroe has been for some time giving his devoted labors. He has collected such data, and valuable information, to prove to the people of the West its importance and benefits. Of these data we shall make large use in making a fuller showing of this enterprise in our next paper. At the last session of the Iowa Legislature a memorial and resolutions to Congress were adopted in favor of the project. The concluding part of that memorial and the resolutions are these :

" This is a work of great national importance. Its benefits will be shared directly by more than half the people of this country; and indirectly by all. It is a necessary addition to the improvement of the navigation of the Western rivers, without which the benefits of that measure will be but half realized. It is a work to be done by the whole country, for the benefit of the whole country. It belongs to the Government of the United States.

"Nothing need to be given. An advance upon good security, for the return of principal and interest is all that will be necessary Not only will this advance be returned in kind with the interest, but the benefits of each year will return the outlay more than five fold. Instead of increasing our national burthen of taxation it will so increase the means of payment as to greatly lessen it.

" To the end, then, of obtaining government aid, there should be a co-operative movement of cities, towns and states. It should be connected with the western river improvements as part of the same enterprise, and the influence of the great interest to be promoted by it, should be concentrated through a convention, and brought to bear upon Congress, to insure a speedy completion. Keeping it always in mind that every day's delay is a loss of more than five times the amount required for that object.

" Resolved, By the General Assembly of the State of Iowa That the free navigation of the Mississippi river on our Northern and Western border

waye for the Trade and Commerce and any measures that will add to their efficiency and importance as channels of Communication

will increase the value of all our productions; add