n
in 1784. But the problem slowly forced itself upon all sections of
the country, and especially upon Pennsylvania and Maryland, whose
inhabitants began to fear lest New York, Alexandria, or Richmond should
snatch the Western trade from Philadelphia or Baltimore. The truth that
underlies the proverb that "history repeats itself" is well illustrated
by the fact that the first macadamized road in America was built in
Pennsylvania, for here also originated the pack-horse trade and the
Conestoga horse and wagon; here the first inland American canal was
built, the first roadbed was graded on the principle of dividing the
whole distance by the whole descent, and the first railway was operated.
Macadam and Telford had only begun to show the people of England how
to build roads of crushed stone--an art first developed by the French
engineer Tresaguet--when Pennsylvanians built the Lancaster Turnpike.
The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road Company was chartered
April 9, 1792, as a part of the general plan of the Society for the
Improvement of Roads and Inland Navigation already described. This road,
sixty-two miles in length, was built of stone at a cost of $465,000 and
was completed in two years. Never before had such a sum been invested in
internal improvement in the United States. The rapidity with which the
undertaking was carried through and the profits which accrued from the
investment were alike astonishing. The subscription books were opened
at eleven o'clock one morning and by midnight 2226 shares had been
subscribed, each purchaser paying down thirty dollars. At the same time
Elkanah Watson was despondently scanning the subscription books of his
Mohawk River enterprise at Albany where "no mortal" had risked more than
two shares.

The success of the Lancaster Turnpike was not achieved without a protest
against the monopoly which the new venture created. It is true that in
all the colonies the exercise of the right of eminent domain had been
conceded in a veiled way to officials to whose care the laying out
of roads had been delegated. As early as 1639 the General Court of
Massachusetts had ordered each town to choose men who, cooperating with
men from the adjoining town, should "lay out highways where they may
be most convenient, notwithstanding any man's property, or any corne
ground, so as it occasion not the pulling down of any man's house, or
laying open any garden or orchard." But the open and extended exerci