2d Session.

ALEXANDRIA CANAL.

JANUARY 31, 1831.

Mr. MERCER, from the Committee on Internal Improvements, made the

following

REPORT:

The Committee on Internal Improvements, to whom was referred the memorial of the Alexandria Canal Company, praying such aid as Congress may be pleased to grant towards the construction of the said canal, have had the same under consideration, and have agreed on the following report:

That the memorialists are believed to represent the wishes, not only of the stockholders of the Alexandria Canal Company, but, as they assure the committee, of the entire population of that once thriving seaport of the commonwealth of Virginia, in asking the aid of Congress towards the construction of a branch from the Chesapeake and Ohio canal to their harbor.

In addition to the facts and reasoning set forth in their memorial, and its accompanying documents, which are made part of this report, (App. A.) the committee have subjoined the proceedings of the memorialists and their fellow-citizens, preparatory to their corporate as well as individual subscriptions to the stock of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, which are to be found in a report of a former committee of this House, (App. B.) and a letter to a member of this committee from a merchant of extensive dealings, who has been for many years engaged in the commerce of Alexandria. (App. C.)

From these documents, and a view of the past and present condition of the markets of the District of Columbia, and their relative dependence on the country to which they respectively look for their supplies, the following facts are deducible.

That the town and county of Alexandria were ceded to the United States, in the year , by the commonwealth of Virginia, accompanied by a grant of 120,000 dollars, to aid in the construction of the public edifices of the federal government, of which the District of Columbia is in fact a political institution, erected for the seat of that government, and subject to its exclusive legislation.

While the cession created a dependence of the people of the District upon Congress, as their sole legislature, it established relations between the District and the rest of the Union, which are the source of mutual obligations. The town of Alexandria, at this period, possessed an extensive commerce in bread stuffs and other commodities. Of the former, it derived a considerable part of its supplies by water, through the navigation of the Potomac,

by boats, which, hovering along the shore of the river, and protected by the Virginia hills in its shallow margin, securely descended to the market of Alexandria.

By the construction of the causeway between Analostan island and the former shore of Virginia, across what was prior thereto the best ship channel of the Potomac, the canal boats were disabled from reaching Alexandria, and the commerce which she derived from that source was consequently lost to her.

Still she retained, as she yet possesses, the larger portion of those supplies which arrive at tide water from the valley of the Shenandoah and its tributary streams, west of the Blue Ridge, by the several turnpikes by which she has, at much cost, connected her market with that fertile territory.

But whenever the navigation of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal shall have attracted the commodities which enter into this transportation from a transit by land to a cheaper carriage by water, a great proportion of the residue of the trade of Alexandria will be subjected to the same hazard with that which she has already lost, unless she be enabled to enter into a fair competition. for its preservation and improvement with the other markets of the District.

It is on such views mainly, added to the superior advantages which Alexandria possesses, as a seaport, over the other markets of the Potomac, that the memorialists ground their appeal to the justice and liberality of Congress for aid in the construction of their canal.

That appeal is regarded by them as the stronger, on account of the motives which led to a subscription by the corporate authorities and private citizens of Alexandria, of $350,000 to the main stem of the canal above Georgetown, and to the application of a part of this sum to its extension through Georgetown and part of Washington to the Tiber. Subjoined are the terms of compromise between the cities of the District, which led to this extension. (App. D.)

By it the commercial advantages of Washington and Georgetown are so improved, that, without an equally secure and uniform connexion of Alexandria with the main stem of the canal, she must witness, in poverty and ruin, the departure of the capital and trade which she possessed when severed from her parent State, in compliance with the wishes of Congress, the interests of the Union, and the express provisions of the federal constitution.

The great benefit of canal navigation is produced by substituting a cheaper and more efficient propelling power for human labor, as that of horses for men. The boats drawn by horses along the tow path of a canal must stop where that tow path ceases; and unless it shall conduct their cargoes to the port of consumption or exportation, those cargoes must be transshipped at a much enhanced cost, in order to reach their destination. Commodities of little value and great bulk, as mineral coal, stone for building, lime and lumber, will not bear this advance on their transportation, and it exposes even the most valuable to a charge sufficient to turn their exportation into a channel less burthened with impositions. The shipment of coals and lumber from the ports of the Potomac to the chief cities on the Chesapeake and Atlantic coasts, would not bear such an advance of price in a competition with other sources of supply; and the only hope which Alexandria can cherish, of participating in this branch of navigation and commerce, depends, therefore, on extending to her harbor an unbroken line of canal navigation. By a branch canal, the descending boats, and the horses

which propel them along the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, will be able to proceed at all times of the night, as well as the day, to the market of Alexandria, with no other additional charge except the toll and freight of a canal less than nine miles in length.

Double wharfage, storage, and commissions will be saved, and the delays, accidents, and injuries of transhipment will be avoided, in the ascending as well as descending communication between Alexandria and the main stem of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, on all the bread stuffs, iron, coals, marble, lime, and lumber, which she receives, and on all the returns which she makes for them-the fish of her own river, and the plaster of Paris and salt which she imports coastwise, or from abroad, for the consumption of the country above.

Contrasting the amount of all those charges with the mere toll and freight of the branch canal in contemplation; computing the cost of this canal at its highest estimate, and making no allowance whatever for any other advantages which the canal is calculated to afford to the accommodation, comfort, and safety of the inhabitants and property of Alexandria, to her manufactures, her external commerce and navigation, it is believed by the memorialists, and is regarded by the committee as probable, that the actual saving in cost, which such a canal will effect, on the articles of her own consumption, and those which she returns to the country above, in payment for them, will be commensurate with the interest on the estimated cost of the canal.

As evidence of the sincerity of this faith, the memorialists have caused surveys, delineations, and estimates to be made of the route, plan, and probable cost of the proposed canal, and have subscribed towards its construction, in their corporate and individual capacities, one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars, or more than one-third part of its computed cost; a sum which, added to that already subscribed by them to the stock of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, does not fall short of half a million of dollars.

An abandonment of their present enterprise, they confidently believe, would end in their total ruin. But its accomplishment with their limited resources would be most oppressively felt, before the completion of the eastern section, or some considerable part, of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, shall have produced the anticipated revenue from that portion of the above sum which they have vested in the stock of that canal. They therefore pray a subscription from Congress in aid of their own capital and enterprise, and the committee have accompanied this report with a bill to that effect.

APPENDIX.

A.

To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled:

The memorial of the President and Directors of the Alexandria Canal Company respectfully showeth:

That, under the authority of the act of Congress passed on the 26th of May, in the year 1830, a company has been duly organised by the name of the Alexandria Canal Company, and that one hundred and thirty-one thousand two hundred dollars have been subscribed as a part of the capital thereof. Your memorialists represent, that, at the time the Company of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal was formed, the corporation of Alexandria subscribed to that company two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, besides a large subscription by individuals, citizens of the town.

When this subscription was made to the Chesapeake and Ohio canal by the corporation and citizens of Alexandria, they considered it would be necessary to connect the main canal with the deep and wide channel at Alexandria, thus to afford an uninterrupted navigation for the passage of boats to the principal shipping port of the District.

The importance of this connexion must be obvious to all, by considering the immense weight and bulk of the cheap products consumed or produced by the country, and the expense and delay attendant on the transhipment of them to or from the largest class of shipping; for already, in addition to the staple commo lity of flour brought annually to Alexandria, which is about two hundred thousand barrels, beside other bread stuffs and salted provisions, may be enumerated the articles of coal, lime, lumber, iron, and other mineral products, in the ore, pig, or manufactured states, and the return commodities of salt, fish, plaister, &c.

Without this uninterrupted communication, the main canal will be of little or no value to the town of Alexandria, and the general interest of the country above will not be so well promoted as they will be by this facility of communication, affording a choice of markets at a very moderate expense of time and money.

An inspection of the map of the canal and town and harbor of Alexandria, will show its superiority over the other ports of the District, and that, in the accommodation for shipping, and being the outlet for a fertile and extensive country, it is excelled by few in the United States.

The height of the canal above tide water will be about thirty-seven feet. This elevation will afford means of constructing dry docks for any purpose to which they may be applied, either for the service of the Navy of the United States, or merchant shipping; and the natural ravines at the termination of the canal at Alexandria will allow their construction at a very light

cost. This elevation will also afford the means of supplying water for the town, to the great convenience and health of the inhabitants.

Under the preceding circumstances, your memorialists approach your honorable body in full confidence that Congress will feel every disposition to aid the stockholders of this company in their praiseworthy and enterpris. ing efforts to make the proposed canal, and thus to contribute to the permanent benefit of not only the town of Alexandria and the District at large, but a large portion of citizens of several States, as well as the future revenue of the United States.

Your memorialists will not prescribe the mode of this aid, whether by subscription to the stock of the company by the United States, or making the aqueduct across the river Potomac at Georgetown, or any other mode which the wisdom of Congress may suggest.

Your memorialists respectfully presume that no constitutional difficulty can exist in extending the proposed aid to the efforts of this District, which, with the citizens thereof, stand toward the General Government in the same relation, and bound by the same ties and duties, the one to the other, as the respective State Goverments do toward their citizens, possessing the same powers, and under the same obligations to aid the people confided to their care, which the several States possess, and have repeatedly exercised toward the enterprising efforts of their citizens in any undertaking calculated to promote a general and extensive benefit, and which private funds may be inadequate to effect.

Your memorialists beg leave further to represent, that Alexandria has, in different forms, paid into the public treasury considerable sums of money. According to authentic information from the Treasury Department, there has been paid from the town of Alexandria into the Treasury of the United States, from the 31st of December, 1791, to the 31st of December, 1829, inclusive, on account of the customs, $3,737,161 27; on account of the post office, $173,043 34; for direct tax in the year 1815, 87,733 74;. and for the year 1816, $3,716 87; in all, $3,921,355 92, exclusive of the internal revenue. The form of the return of the collector of that revenue has rendered it impracticable for the Treasury Department to ascertain what portion of it was paid by Alexandria. There can be no doubt, however, that the proportion paid by Alexandria would make the whole amount paid within the period above mentioned exceed four millions of dollars; thus exhibiting a clear revenue from the town of Alexandria, on an average of the last twenty-eight or thirty years, of nearly one hundred and fifty thousand dollars per annum.

In addition to these facts, your memorialists cannot forbear to bring to the view of Congress, on this occasion, what is perhaps known to but a few of your honorable body. In the year 1790, when Alexandria was a part of the State of Virginia, that State advanced to the General Government the sum of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, as a donation, to be applied by Congress to the erection of the public buildings on the bank of the Potomac, for the permanent seat of the General Government. In aiding the town of Alexandria in making their canal, the citizens of a large portion of the State of Virginia, both above and on the tide water below, must feel a deep and lively interest.

During the late war with Great Britain, when the General Government was in need of funds to enable them to meet the demands on the public Treasury, the banks in Alexandria promptly afforded aid, by advancing for