1108. CANAL, Big Beaver.—[continued].
I thank you for the information
* * * on the communication
between the Cayohoga and Big Beaver. I have
ever considered the opening of a canal between
those two water courses as the most important
work in that line which the State of Virginia
could undertake. It will infallibly turn through
the Potomac all the commerce of Lake Erie,
and the country west of that, except what May
pass down the Mississippi; and it is important
that it be soon done, lest that commerce should,
in the meantime, get established in another
channel. * * * I take the liberty of sending
you the notes I made when I examined
the canal of Languedoc, through its whole
course, last year. You may find in them some
thing, perhaps, which may be turned to account,
some time or other, in the prosecution of the
Potomac canal.—
To General Washington. Washington ed. ii, 370.
Ford ed., v, 7.
(P.
1788)
