with gratitude for this noble race, and my
prayers are, that Providence would crown them with every blessing.

When you received my promise to attend as a delegate the Chicago Canal
Convention, little was it then supposed by me, that duty would call me
before that time to Europe. So much of my promise, however, as embraced
the discussion of the question, will now be redeemed. The project of an
enlarged _thorough-cut_ canal, uniting Chicago and the lakes with the
Illinois river and Mississippi, has long attracted my attention. As a
Senator of the United States, for many years, from a Southwestern State,
then devoted to the Union, and elected to the Senate on that question, I
have often passed near or over the contemplated route, always
concluding, that this great work should be accomplished without delay.
Every material interest of our whole country demands the construction of
this canal, and the perpetuity of the Union is closely identified with
its completion. It is for the nation's benefit, and should be the
nation's work. It will give new outlets to the Mississippi, through the
lakes, to the ocean, and neutralize that too exclusive attraction of
Western commerce to the Gulf, which has so often menaced the integrity
of the Union. We must make the access from the Mississippi, through the
lakes, to the ocean, as cheap, and easy, and eventually as free from tar
or toll, as to the Gulf, and the flag of disunion will never float again
over an acre of the soil, or a drop of all the waters of the mighty
West.

It is clear that, centuries ago, the lakes and Mississippi were united,
through the Illinois and Wisconsin rivers, and we must remove the
obstructions, now divorcing their waters, and restore their union, by
thorough-cut canals. In a few years, the saving of transportation, in a
single year, would more than pay the cost of the work. The increase of
population, wealth, products, imports, exports, and revenue, which would
follow the completion of this work, can scarcely now be estimated, and
it should be accomplished if for no other reason, as a most profitable
investment of capital for the benefit of the nation.

But, great as is the importance of these enlarged canals, uniting the
Illinois and Wisconsin rivers with the lakes, other great works,
connecting with the East, are indispensable. But great as is the
importance of these are the enlarged locks of the Erie, Champlain, Black
River, Syracuse, and Oswego, Cayuga,