not until 1856 that an
American vessel reached London by way of the St. Lawrence.

With the Hudson and the St. Lawrence in the East thus competing for
the trade of the Great Lakes, it is not surprising that the call of the
Mississippi for improved highways was presently heard. From the period
of the War of 1812 onward the position of the Mississippi River in
relation to Lake Michigan was often referred to as holding possibilities
of great importance in the development of Western commerce. Already the
old portage-path links between the Fox and Wisconsin and the Chicago
and Illinois rivers had been worn deep by the fur traders of many
generations, and with the dawning of the new era enthusiasts of Illinois
were pointing out the strategic position of the latter route for a great
trade between Lake Michigan and the Gulf of Mexico. Thus the wave of
enthusiasm for canal construction that had swept New York and Ohio now
reached Indiana and Illinois. Indian ownership of land in the latter
State for a moment seemed to block the promotion of the proposed
Illinois and Michigan Canal, but a handsome grant of a quarter of
a million acres by the Federal Government in 1827 came as a signal
recognition of the growing importance of the Northwest; and an
appropriation for the lighting and improving of the harbor of the little
village of Chicago was hailed by ardent promoters as sure proof that the
wedding of Lake Michigan and the Mississippi was but a matter of months.

All the difficulties encountered by the advocates of earlier works of
this character, in the valleys of the Potomac, the Susquehanna, and the
Mohawk, were the portion of these dogged promoters of Illinois. Here,
as elsewhere, there were rival routes and methods of construction,
opposition of jealous sections not immediately benefited, estimates
which had to be reconsidered and augmented, and so on. The land grants
pledged to pay the bonds were at first of small value, and their advance
in price depended on the success of the canal itself, which could not
be built unless the State underwrote the whole enterprise--if the lands
were not worth the bonds. Thus the argument ran in a circle, and no one
could foresee the splendid traffic and receipts from tolls that would
result from the completed canal.

The commissioners in charge of the project performed one interesting
service in these early days by putting Chicago on the map; but the two
terminals, Ottawa on the Illinois