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must be undertaken & carried through at some future day; but which will hardly be entered on by any private Corporation, or by any State Government of the South in their present exhausted condition; -works is fine, to which the Federal Government alone is competent, & which when executed will greatly benefit the country & ultimately more than [[strikethrough]] pay [[/strikethrough]] indemnify the Government for cost of their construction.  It was the mention of some of these which led to the request above mentioned, & with which I now willingly comply.  At present I shall do but little more than indicate these several projects,- beginning with those whose locality is farthest North, & proceeding Southward; - presuming that this only can be necessary for those to whom this paper will be submitted.

   1. The wisest statesmen of Virginia, with Washington & Marshall at their head, have thought it an object of national importance, to unite the Eastern & Western waters of our Country, through the James & Kanawha Rivers.  Competent engineers have pronounced it practicable, & much of the work has been done.  The chief remaining obstacle is the Passage of the Alleghany; & this may be overcome by means of a Reservoir, feeders, & a tunnel near the Summit Level.  Should the Federal Government undertake this work, the necessities of the Western Trade would soon force the completion of the rest, & the consequent addition to the National wealth would more than repay the Government for its outlay.

   2. The Ohio River below Pittsburg, during the months of Summer, is often so low as to cause a suspension of navigation.  As a remedy for this evil, the late Charles Elliot, a distinguished Engineer, proposed to form reservoirs on some of the smaller tributaries of the Upper Ohio in Western Virginia, the contents of which might be drawn off, as occasion required, & thereby keep the channel of the river in a navigable state. The experiment - it was thought - was worthy of trial by the General Government, & if successful, would justify the [[strikethrough]] entire [[/strikethrough]] expenditure which the entire work would call for.

   3. The Swamp-lands of those Southern States Virginia, N & South Carolina, embraces an area, in the aggregate greater than Holland, & quite as rich; very much of which may be reclaimed.  The Coast of North Carolina, throughout the greater part, if not its entire length, presents such secure[[?]]. Scientific Agriculturists tell us indeed, that where such soils are wholly of vegetable origin - made by the successive growth and partial decay of plants - their recovery should not attempted.  In modern phrase, 'It would not pay'.  The abstraction of crops occasions a consolidation of the Mass, & a lessening of its quantity, until it again subsides beneath the waters.  But it is easy to distinguish between such soils & those which have sufficient mineral

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-01-22 10:26:12 Suggest Kanawha for river name. Is a river in W.Va. Makes sense - I think though it is written as Kenawha, so I changed it to reflect that misspelling. I have added a [[?]] after the word "secure" as it does not seem right to me. It is difficult to decipher - sometimes it looks to me like it could be "result". It spelled Kanawha. I struggled with that before. I was thinking that maybe it was secure as in security, then rescue, secret? ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-01-22 22:49:23 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-01-22 23:00:01