even the restricted method could not arrive at equality. We have heard here a great deal about constructive journeys. Does any man believe that it was the intention of the law that members should be paid for journeys they did not make? There have been very great apparent errors committed; and the committee, in discharge of their duty, in seeking the aid of the Postmaster General, have, so far from having obtained from that source such certainty as might, though very erroneously, have been supposed to be in possession of that officer, been sustained in their opinion of the difficulties attending the subject by the following remarks: "The course now pursued by the Post Office Department is, where the distance has not been ascertained by actual survey, to obtain from different postmasters on a route the stated distances from one office to another. These, in some few instances, have been obtained by measurement, especially on turnpike. roads; but by far the greater proportion of them are given by mere estimate, according to the reputed distances in their neighborhoods. The reports of postmasters of the estimated distances often differ considerably, one from another; in some instances, from 5 to 10 per cent. In such cases, the mean is generally taken." Again, he says, "No rate can be given to equalise the mileage of members of Congress, unless the several distances should be ascertained by actual measurement: an approximation is all that could be hoped for. Perhaps the post route on whichthe mail is most usually transported would come as near to the object sought as any other general rule that could be laid down." And in conclusion, he observes, "Probably the most eligible plan would be, to take the most usual post route as the criterion for a general rule, subject to such exceptions as Congress in their wisdom should deem advisable."

The committee will suggest, that, should it be the will of the House that either of the plans presented in this report should be adopted, or that it should, by a specific act, be made the duty of the Committee of Accounts of both Houses, who have the subject respectively for each specially committed to them, that then the Committee on Public Expenditures, or any other appropriate committee, be imperatively required to report to that effect by

bill.

The Committee on Public Expenditures having been instructed by the resolution to inquire into the subject, have done so; and being unable to come to or devise any definite plan, ask to be discharged from the further consideration of the subject.

2d Session.

CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL COMPANY.

MEMORIAL

OF THE

PRESIDENT AND DIRECTORS OF THE CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL

COMPANY.

MAY 24, 1830.*

Read, and laid upon the table.

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

The memorial of the undersigned, President and Directors of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, pursuant to a resolution of the stockholders in general meeting,

MOST RESPECTFULLY REPRESENTS:

That, in order to comply, if practicable, with the condition expressed in the fifth section of the act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, (appendix A,) your memorialists have recently applied to the Legislatures of Virginia and Maryland for such a modification of the charter under which they act as will enable them, after receiving the further sanction of a majority of their stockholders, to commence the western section of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal before the eastern section shall have been completed. (App. B.)

In referring to the provision of the act of the general assembly of Pennsylvania, one of the parties to the charter of the company, seconded, as it has recently been, by the earnest petitions to your honorable body of many of the citizens of that Commonwealth, the undersigned have suggested, they believe, considerations which cannot fail to recommend the object of their memorial to your favorable regard.

As the resolution of the stockholders, (app. C.) and the obvious interests of themselves, and, consequently, of the United States, one of the largest subscribers to the funds of the company, have rendered it the duty of the memorialists to associate another object with that which they have suggested— a correspondent enlargement of the resources of the company-they proceed to bring to your notice the present condition and future prospects of the

• This memorial was presented at the last session, but, as the appendix was not prepared, it was not printed.

great enterprise confided to their management, so far as they may be deemed to have a pertinent bearing on the second purpose of this memorial.

The condition of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, at the period of the general meeting of the stockholders in June last, is disclosed in the accompanying annual report of the President and Directors of the company; and the present state of the canal, as well as of the company's funds, will be seen in the annexed tabular exhibit and Treasurer's report, bringing down the estimates of the cost of the canal and the Treasurer's account to the present time. (App. D.)

From this evidence, it will appear that the construction of the canal has been contracted for as far west as forty-eight miles from Washington; that the canal, between its first and second feeders, is expected to be brought into use by the first of July next; and that its construction has so far proceeded as to render certain the execution of that portion of the work which the injunction of the Court of Chancery of Maryland has not inhibited the undersigned from placing under contract, for a sum, which, allowing for the enlargement of its dimensions, does not greatly exceed the estimate of the civil engineers, Messrs. Geddes and Roberts, nor that of the central committee of the late Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Convention, from whose proceedings the charter of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company originated. (App. Nos. 7, 8, and 9.)

When it is known, as may be demonstrated, that the 48 miles of the canal, the computed cost of which has been, so far, verified by experience, comprehends a more than average proportion, for that distance, of the most difficult and expensive work to be encountered on the eastern section of the canal, your memorialists will not be regarded as too sanguine if they express the confident hope of being able to finish that section for a sum not much surpassing the least of those estimates; and this, notwithstanding the addition of one foot, throughout the whole eastern section, to the depth of the canal, beyond even the largest dimensions contemplated by those engineers or by the convention. (App. E.)

The estimates of the former were applied, respectively, to three canals, or to three several dimensions of a canal, passing as nearly as practicable over the same ground. The estimate for the first of these, having the same plan with the State canals of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, viz: being 40 feet at the surface and four feet deep, and extending from Georgetown to Cumberland, a distance of 1863 miles, amounts to the sum of 4,008,005,208 dollars, or 21,461,87% dollars per mile; of one, extending the same distance and along the same shore of the Potomac, with a breath of 48 feet at the surface and a depth of five, they compute at 4,380,991,6 dollars, or 23,191,38 dollars per mile; and of a third, of the same depth with the second, but having for 126 of the 1863 miles a breadth at the surface of sixty feet, and at bottom of 42, they compute at 4,479,346,73 dollars, or at 23,985,7% dollars per mile.

The difference between these estimates, when compared with the relative resistance to be encountered by the same boat in passing along these several canals, induced, not only a preference of the largest of the preceding canals, but an enlargement of that to a depth of six feet, except in cases where peculiar difficulties are to be encountered at a much enhanced cost. (App. F.) Accordingly, the 48 miles of canal placed under contract is to be no where less than six feet deep; and, except for three-fourths of a mile, made up of short spaces, here and there, along that line, where it is reduced in breath to less

than sixty, though never less than fifty feet, its least width at the surface is sixty feet, and at bottom forty-two feet, affording a cross section of 306 feet. It may be proper here to remark that the cross section of the New York canals is 136 feet only. The locks of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal are consequently one foot deeper, as they are ten feet longer, in their chamber, than those proposed by Messrs. Geddes and Roberts, and one foot deeper than those proposed by the United States Board of Internal Improvement; being calculated for boats of ninty feet length, having a draft of water of three feet eight inches, with a cross section of 50.4 feet, capable of carrying each, with facility, one hundred tons, and of being propelled by the labor of three horses.

The breadth of this canal being about 44 times the breadth of the boat, and its cross section six times that of the boat, the latter will move with a moderate velocity, as on an indefinite expanse of water. (App. G.) But the undersigned extend their views beyond this result, and, turning to practical advantage the rock which abounds every where along the line of the canal, and which has so greatly enhanced its cost, they purpose, by walling the inner slopes of the canal, not only to obviate the necessity of future repairs, but also to fit this important line of communication between the east and the west for the use of steam as its propelling power.

On the Chesapeake and Delaware canal, the breadth of which was designed to be sixty, and its depth eight feet, a velocity of seven miles an hour has been already attained, and has superseded a resort to land transportation for persons, as well as property, across the peninsula between the cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Economy, rather than velocity, being, however, the great desideratum in the transportation to market of the very heavy and bulky products of the American forests, mines, and agriculture, would have been accomplished without looking to this powerful agent; but, by the efficacy of steam, combined with the enlarged volume of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, passage boats may be expedited on its surface with a rapidity surpassed, at present, only on the best improved mail roads of this or any other country. In this anticipation, your memorialists make no allowance for those discoveries which are daily surprising the world with new applications of art and science to human use and comfort. They forbear to rely on a very recent impr yement of the structure of the boats on the Forth and Clyde canal, which is said to have extended the propelling power of a single horse to the transportation of burthens much surpassing all former calculations.

Should the views of your memorialists meet the approbation of the several parties to the charter of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, and the western section of the canal be begun at Pittsburg, and conducted up the Monongahela and Youghiogany rivers, the portion of the canal between that city and Connelsville may be first executed, being a distance of less than 60 miles.

A canal of 58 miles above Pittsburg, having a depth of six feet, with a breadth of sixty feet at its water line, and overcoming a descent of 146 feet 4 inches by nineteen locks, has been computed, by two practical civil engineers, Messrs. Roberts and Cuyer, of New York, to cost 1,718,633 dollars. (App. H.)

This estimate includes no allowance for land rights or fencing, but it computes the entire lockage at $1,000 the foot lift, the slope walls at more than one dollar the perch, and these two items, taken together, at more than a fourth of the entire sum above mentioned; while the heavier expense of ex

cavation and embankment, constituting together more than a moiety of the whole cost of the canal, are computed at more than the actual cost of the like items upon the eastern section of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal. (App. I.) The average cost of more than 34 millions of yards of embankment exceeds 18 cents, and of 2 millions of yards of evcavation, 12 cents, the cubic yard. The preceding sum may, therefore, be considered as the maximum cost of so much of the western section of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal; and with the liberal patronage of the United States, and such further aid as the State of Pennsylvania, and individual enterprise within that Commonwealth, and elsewhere, may afford, will be, it is hoped, speedily supplied.

Having thus completed one half of the portion of the canal between the western extreme of the summit level and Pittsburg, there will remain but 27 miles of the other moiety of this distance to be provided for, in order to reach the mouth of Casselman's river, a point, on the line of the canal, in the vicinity of the Cumberland road, and, by the route of that road, about 44 miles from Cumberland, the termination of the eastern section of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal-by the route surveyed for the canal, about 67 miles— thirty-one of which lie between the mouth of Casselman's river and the western basin of the summit level.

It is apparent, therefore, that there will be several stages of the work where a pause may be made in its prosecution, without the loss of benefit, from the portion of it which will have been completed. To this view may be superadded the highly important consideration, that the part which will have been accomplished will afford increased facilities for the more speedy and economical construction of the residue, and in the interim will contribute, by its profit, to the general revenue of the company.

Your memorialists, having explained the motives which prompted the adoption of a plan of such enlarged dimensions for the eastern section of the canal, in order to obviate objections to the immediate commencement of the western section, beg leave to return to the estimate of the probable cost of the former. With a view of showing the competency of the funds, on which a reliance has been hitherto had, for the completion of this section of the canal, they proceed to demonstrate, or to render probable at least, the truth of thair statement as to the proportion which the cost of the part of this section now under contract, being that to the east of the "Point of Rocks," may be expected to bear to the greater portion, extending to the west of that point, and east of Cumberland, along which their progress has been obstructed. For this purpose, they present the following considerations:

Not only have the provisions hitherto consumed on the canal been transported a considerable distance, but nearly all the hydraulic lime for its costÎy aqueducts and its numerous locks and culverts has been obtained from the New York canals, or from the Potomac quarries near Shepherdstown, about 25 miles west of the "Point of Rocks," by an obstructed navigation, sometimes doubling its prime cost at the kilns on the river shore. Much of the stone

for this masonry has been alike transported by an obstructed navigation, and no small part of it by land, for great distances and at great expense. Two damsone, of them exceeding half a mile in length, have been required across the widest part of the Potomac, to force the water of that river into the necessary feeders: and the expense of their construction, as well as of two considerable*

That of 7 archies across the Monocacy, computed to cost 100,000 dollars, and that of across the Seneca, not less than 23,000 dollars.