road from the Potomac to the Ohio was reported to
Congress in 1807; a coast survey was ordered in the same year. The first
superintendent was Hassler, a Swiss, whom Mr. Gallatin brought to the
notice of Mr. Jefferson. In 1808 a general plan of improvement was
submitted to the Senate. This included canals parallel with the
seacoast, making a continuous line of inland navigation from the Hudson
to Cape Fear; a great turnpike from Maine to Georgia; the improvement of
the Susquehanna, Potomac, James, and Santee rivers to serve the slope
from the Alleghanies to the Atlantic; of the Alleghany, Monongahela, and
Kanawha, to serve the country westward to the Mississippi, the head
waters of these rivers to be connected by four roads across the
Appalachian range; a canal at the falls of the Ohio; a connection of the
Hudson with Lake Champlain, and of the same river with Lake Ontario at
Oswego; and a canal around Niagara Falls. The entire expense he
estimated at $20,000,000, to be met by an appropriation of $2,000,000 a
year for ten years; the stock created for turnpikes and canals to be a
permanent fund for repairs and improvements.

A national university for education in the higher sciences was also
recommended by Jefferson in his message of 1806, but Mr. Gallatin had
little faith in the popularity of this scheme. After the convulsion of
1794 in Geneva, Gallatin's old college mate, D'Yvernois, conceived the
plan of transporting the entire University of Geneva to the United
States, and wrote on the subject to Jefferson and Adams; but his idea
was based on the supposition that fifteen thousand dollars' income could
be had from the United States in support of the institution, which was,
of course, at the time impracticable. Jefferson believed that these
plans of national improvement could be carried into effect only by an
amendment to the Constitution; but Mr. Gallatin, as in the bank
question, was disturbed by no such scruples, and he recommended Mr.
Jefferson to strike from his message the words "general welfare," as
questionable in their nature, and because the proposition seemed to
acknowledge that the words are susceptible of a very dangerous meaning.

To a permanent embargo act Mr. Gallatin was from the beginning opposed.
He recognized the mischief of government prohibitions, and thought that
statesmen might well hesitate before they took the hazard of regulating
the concerns of individuals. The sequel proved the correctness