y imperfect one. The existence and principle
of our Union point out the necessity of a very different policy.

The advantages which would be derived from such improvements are
incalculable. The facility which would thereby be afforded to the
transportation of the whole of the rich productions of our country
to market would alone more than amply compensate for all the labor
and expense attending them. Great, however, as is that advantage, it
is one only of many and by no means the most important, Every power of
the General Government and of the State governments connected with the
strength and resources of the country would be made more efficient
for the purposes intended by them. In war they would facilitate the
transportation of men, ordnance, and provisions, and munitions of war of
every kind to every part of our extensive coast and interior on which an
attack might be made or threatened. Those who have any knowledge of the
occurrences of the late war must know the good effect which would result
in the event of another war from the command of an interior navigation
alone along the coast for all the purposes of war as well as of commerce
between the different parts of our Union. The impediments to all
military operations which proceeded from the want of such a navigation
and the reliance which was placed, notwithstanding those impediments,
on such a commerce can not be forgotten. In every other line their
good effect would be most sensibly felt. Intelligence by means of the
Post-Office Department would be more easily, extensively, and rapidly
diffused. Parts the most remote from each other would be brought more
closely together. Distant lands would be made more valuable, and the
industry of our fellow-citizens on every portion of our soil be better
rewarded.

It is natural in so great a variety of climate that there should be
a corresponding difference in the produce of the soil; that one part
should raise what the other might want. It is equally natural that the
pursuits of industry should vary in like manner; that labor should be
cheaper and manufactures succeed better in one part than in another;
that were the climate the most severe and the soil less productive,
navigation, the fisheries, and commerce should be most relied on.
Hence the motive for an exchange for mutual accommodation and active
intercourse between them. Each part would thus find for the surplus
of its labor, in whatever article it consisted, an ex