Seneca, Chemung, and Elmira to the
Pennsylvania State line, Rochester, and Alleghany River. Nearly all of
these are 70 feet wide and 7 feet deep, and require only an enlargement
of the locks, whilst a few require to be widened and deepened. The
Chemung canal connects the Susquehanna with the Erie canal, at
Montezuma, and the Chenango is nearly completed to the north branch of
the Susquehanna at the Pennsylvania State line, whence, the Susquehanna
canal passes through Wilkesbarre, Northumberland, Middleton, and
Wrightsville, to Havre de Grace, in Maryland, on tide water, at the
head of Chesapeake Bay. The great canal, from the southern boundary of
New York, down the Susquehanna to tide water, is now five feet deep, and
from 40 to 50 feet wide, and can all be readily enlarged to the
dimensions of the Erie canal. With these works thus enlarged, the
connection of the lakes would not only be complete with the Hudson, and
by the Delaware and Raritan canal with the Delaware, and by the Delaware
and Chesapeake canal with the Chesapeake Bay, but also by the direct
route, down the Susquehanna, to Baltimore, Norfolk, and Albemarle Sound.
Is not this truly national, and is it not equally beneficial, to the
East and the West, to open all these routes for large steamers? The
system, however, would not be complete, without uniting Champlain with
the St. Lawrence, Ontario with Erie, and Huron and Michigan with
Superior.

The enlarged works should also be provided through Wisconsin, Indiana,
Ohio, and western Pennsylvania, to the lakes, to the extent that these
canals can be made of the dimensions of the Erie, and supplied with
water. Nor should we forget the widening of the canal at Louisville, the
removal of obstructions in the St. Clair flats and upper Mississippi,
and the deepening of the mouth of this great river. The construction of
these works would be costly, but as a mere investment of capital, for
the increase of our wealth and revenue, they would pay the nation
tenfold.

As the main object of these works is cheap transportation, the tolls
should be diminished, as the works were completed, to the full extent
that freight could be carried more cheaply in large boats, and provision
should be made for an adequate sinking fund, so as gradually to
liquidate the whole cost, and then to collect no more toll than would
pay to keep the works in repair. Such is the true interest of the States
and of the nation. If New York could coll