other frontier and
coast works, expended in establishing military and naval depots at
Memphis and Pittsburg, and in the construction of a ship-canal from the
lower Illinois to Lake Michigan,--for the purpose of obtaining the naval
control of the northern lakes.

It is said that British military and steam naval forces will ascend the
St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario; that to counteract these operations we
must build an opposition steam-navy at Pittsburg and Memphis, and
collect out troops on the Ohio and Mississippi, ascend the Mississippi
and Illinois, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and the Georgian Bay, cross
over to the Ottawa by French river and Lake Nipissing, or Moon river and
the Muskago, then descend the Ottawa river to Montreal. But as there
might be some difficulty in conveying their war-steamers over some
twelve or fifteen portages between the Georgian Bay and the Ottawa, and
as the upper waters of that river are not navigable by such craft, it
has, by some of the military writers before alluded to, been deemed
preferable to descend Lake Huron, St. Clair river and lake, run the
gauntlet past the British forts on the Detroit, descend Lake Erie and
the Niagara[26] into Lake Ontario, so as to meet the English as they
come steaming up the St. Lawrence!

[Footnote 26: How they are to pass the Falls was not determined either
by Harry Bluff or the Memphis Convention.]

It is agreed upon all sides that the British must first collect their
forces at Quebec, and then pass along the line of the St. Lawrence and
Lake Ontario to reach the Niagara and Detroit frontiers. Our boards of
engineers have deemed it best to collect troops on the Champlain line,
and, by penetrating between Montreal and Quebec, separate the enemy's
forces and cut off all the remainder of Canada from supplies and
reinforcements from England. But it has been discovered by certain
western men that to cut the _trunk_ of a tree is not the proper method
of felling it: we must climb to the _top_ and pinch the buds, or, at
most, cut off a few of the smaller limbs. To blow up a house, we should
not place the mine under the foundation, but attach it to one of the
shingles of the roof! We have already shown that troops collected at
Albany may reach the great strategic point on the St. Lawrence by an
easy and direct route of _two hundred miles_; but forces collected at
Pittsburg and Memphis must pass over a difficult and unfrequented route
of _two thousand miles_.