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Subject Area: Political Theory

GALLATIN TO JEFFERSON. - Albert Gallatin, The Writings of Albert Gallatin, vol. 1 [1879]

Edition used:

The Writings of Albert Gallatin, ed. Henry Adams (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1879). 3 vols.

Part of: The Writings of Albert Gallatin, 3 vols.

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GALLATIN TO JEFFERSON.

Treasury Department, 12th February, 1808.

Dear Sir,—

The President was authorized to cause to be opened a road or roads through the territory lately ceded by the Indians to the United States from the river Mississippi to the Ohio, and to the former Indian boundary-line established by the Treaty of Greenville, by the 7th Section of an Act entitled “An Act to regulate and fix the compensation of clerks and to authorize the laying out certain public roads, and for other purposes,” passed 21st April, 1806, Sec. 8th, vol. of Laws, page 129. Under that authority two roads have been laid out, one from St. Louis, or rather Kaskaskia, through Vincennes to the Indian line in the direction of Cincinnati, and the other from Vincennes to the falls of the Ohio. I have not received official information that contracts had yet been made for the opening of either. They are only surveyed and laid out. As you are reporting on the Cumberland Road, and the commissioners have not extended yet the location of the road more than 7 or 8 miles beyond Brownsville, would it not be best to report that you have confirmed only so much of the road as extends from Cumberland to Brownsville, and made contracts for opening the same? The idea is suggested because by the terms of the Act it seems premature for the President to confirm any part of the road the location of which is not completed; because the ferment excited in the Pennsylvania Legislature on that particular portion of the road would be allayed by seeing that the President wishes the ground recommended by the Legislature to be fully examined before he forms a conclusive opinion; and because, as it relates to the general course of the road and of its extension towards St. Louis, I really believe that striking Charleston instead of Wheeling, though farther north than is desirable, would not lengthen the whole distance more than one or two miles. Considering the completion of that road across our mountains in the manner contemplated as a national object of great importance (particularly as a bond of union), I think it more useful to remove local and State opposition than to adhere too strictly to first, though correct, impressions.

Respectfully, your obedient servant.