National Road

The journey from Virginia to Ohio is quite clear in my memory, though it was just at the close of my sixth year.

At that day, the roads over the Alleghenies were in a very rough condition, though the national or Cumberland Road was partly made, and in the spring of 1813 there were considerable stretches of it used by the wagoneers.

For emigrants and the transportation of freight, there was no mode of conveyance but the large road wagons, as they were called, usually drawn by five or six horses and carrying 60 or 70 hundredweight.

There were several routes by which these wagons approached the mountains, but after passing Cumberland they followed the one road known as Braddock's Trail, which struck the Monongahela River at Brownsville, or Redstone Fort, passing down the Laurel Hill near Uniontown, then called Beasantown.

In the subdivision of the soil and the great equality of condition, as Webster said on more than one occasion, lay the true basis, most certainly, of popular government.

there was the undoubted source of jacksonian democracy the characteristics of the western people travelers into the northwest during the early years of the nineteenth century were agreed that the people of that region were almost uniformly marked by the characteristics common to an independent yeomanry a close observer thus recorded his impressions a spirit of adventurous enterprise a willingness to go through any hardship to accomplish an object independence of thought and action they have felt the influence of these principles from their childhood men who can endure anything that have lived almost without restraint free as the mountain air or as the deer and the buffalo of their forests and who know they are americans all an apparent roughness which some would deem rudeness of manner where there is perfect equality in a neighborhood of people who know little about each other's previous history or ancestry but where each is lord of the soil he cultivates where a log cabin is all that the best of families can expect to have for years and of course can possess few of the external decorations which have so much influence in creating a diversity of rank in society these circumstances have laid the foundation for that equality of intercourse simplicity of manners want of deference want of reserve great readiness to make acquaintances freedom of speech indisposition to brook real or imaginary insults which one witnesses among people of the west this equality this independence this rudeness so often described by the traveller as marking a new country were all accentuated by the character of the settlers themselves traces of the fierce unsociable eagle-eyed hard-drinking hunter remained the settlers who followed the hunter were with some exceptions soldiers of the revolutionary army farmers of the middling order and mechanics from the towns english scotch-irish germans poor in possessions and thrown upon the labor of their own hands for support sons and daughters from well-to-do eastern homes sometimes brought softer manners but the equality of life and the leveling force of labor in forest and field soon made them one in spirit with their struggling neighbors even the preachers and teachers who came when the cabins were raised in the clearings and rude churches and schoolhouses were built preached sermons and taught lessons that savored of the frontier as any one may know who reads peter cartwright's a muscular christian or eggleston's the hoosier schoolmaster the west and the east meet the east alarmed a people so independent as the westerners and so attached to local self-government gave the conservative east many a rude shock setting gentlemen in powdered wigs and knee breeches agog with the idea that terrible things might happen in the mississippi valley not without good grounds did washington fear that a touch of a feather would turn the western settlers away from the seaboard to the spaniards and seriously did he urge the east not to neglect them lest they be drawn into the arms of or be dependent upon foreigners taking advantage of the restless spirit in the southwest aaron burr having disgraced himself by killing alexander hamilton in a duel laid wild plans if not to bring about a secession in that region at least to build a state of some kind out of the spanish dominions adjoining louisiana frightened at such enterprises and fearing the dominance of the west the federalists with a few conspicuous exceptions opposed equality between the sections had their narrow views prevailed the west with its new democracy would have been held in perpetual tutelage to the seaboard or perhaps been driven into independence as the thirteen colonies had been not long before eastern friends of the west fortunately for the nation there were many eastern leaders particularly from the south who understood the west approved its spirit and sought to bring the two sections together by common bonds washington kept alive and keen the zeal for western advancement which he acquired in his youth as a surveyor he never grew tired of urging upon his eastern friends the importance of the lands beyond the mountains he pressed upon the governor of virginia a project for a wagon road connecting the seaboard with the ohio country and was active in a movement to improve the navigation of the potomac he advocated strengthening the ties of commerce smooth the roads he said and make easy the way for them and then see what an influx of articles will be poured upon us how amazingly our exports will be increased by them and how amply we shall be compensated for any trouble and expense we may encounter to effect it jefferson too was interested in every phase of western development the survey of lands the exploration of the waterways the opening of trade and even the discovery of the bones of prehistoric animals robert fulton the inventor of the steamboat was another man of vision who for many years pressed upon his countrymen the necessity of uniting east and west by a canal which would cement the union raise the value of the public lands and extend the principles of confederate and republican government the difficulties of early transportation means of communication played an important part in the strategy of all those who sought to bring together the seaboard and the frontier the produce of the west wheat corn bacon hemp cattle and tobacco was bulky and the cost of overland transportation was prohibitive in the eastern market a cow and her calf were given for a bushel of salt while a suit of store clothes cost as much as a farm in such circumstances the inhabitants of the mississippi valley were forced to ship their produce over a long route by way of new orleans and to pay high freight rates for everything that was brought across the mountains scows of from five to fifty tons were built at the towns along the rivers and piloted down the stream to the crescent city in a few cases small ocean-going vessels were built to transport goods to the west indies or to the eastern coast towns salt iron guns powder and the absolute essentials which the pioneers had to buy mainly in eastern markets were carried over narrow wagon trails that were almost impassable in the rainy season the national road to far-sighted men like albert gallatin the father of internal improvements the solution of this problem was the construction of roads and canals early in jefferson's administration congress dedicated a part of the proceeds from the sale of lands to building highways from the headwaters of the navigable waters emptying into the atlantic to the ohio river and beyond into the northwest territory in eighteen o six after many misgivings it authorized a great national highway binding the east and the west the cumberland road as it was called began in northwestern maryland wound through southern pennsylvania crossed the narrow neck of virginia at wheeling and then shot almost straight across ohio indiana and illinois into missouri By 1817, stagecoaches were running between Washington and Wheeling.

By 1833, contractors had carried their work to Columbus, Ohio, and by 1852 to Vandalia, Illinois.

Over this ballasted road, mail and passenger coaches could go at high speed, and heavy freight wagons proceed in safety at a steady pace.

Brown, The Lower South in American History B.

A. Hinsdale, The Old Northwest, 2 volumes A.

B. Hulbert, Great American Canals and the Cumberland Road T. Roosevelt, Thomas H. Benton P. J.

Treat, The National Land System, 1785-1820 F. J. Turner, Rise of the New West, American Nation Series.

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Katie Gibney history of the united states by charles a beard and mary r beard part four the west and jacksonian democracy chapter x the farmers beyond the appalachians the spirit of the frontier land tenure and liberty over an immense western area there developed an unbroken system of freehold farms in the gulf states and the lower mississippi valley it is true the planter with his many slaves even led in the pioneer movement but through large sections of tennessee and kentucky as well as upper georgia and alabama and all throughout the northwest territory the small farmer reigned supreme in this immense dominion there sprang up a civilization without caste or class a body of people all having about the same amount of this world's goods and deriving their livelihood from one source the labor of their own hands on the soil the northwest territory alone almost equalled in area all the original thirteen states combined except georgia and its system of agricultural economy was unbroken by plantations and feudal estates in the subdivision of the soil and the great equality of condition as webster said on more than one occasion lay the true basis most certainly of popular government there was the undoubted source of jacksonian democracy the characteristics of the western people travellers into the northwest during the early years of the nineteenth century were agreed that the people of that region were almost uniformly marked by the characteristics common to an independent yeomanry a close observer thus recorded his impressions a spirit of adventurous enterprise a willingness to go through any hardship to accomplish an object independence of thought and action they have felt the influence of these principles from their childhood men who can endure anything that have lived almost without restraint free as the mountain air or as the deer and the buffalo of their forests and who know they are americans all an apparent roughness which some would deem rudeness of manner where there is perfect equality in a neighborhood of people who know little about each other's previous history or ancestry but where each is lord of the soil he cultivates where a log cabin is all that the best of families can expect to have for years and of course can possess few of the external decorations which have so much influence in creating a diversity of rank in society these circumstances have laid the foundation for that equality of intercourse simplicity of manners want of deference want of reserve great readiness to make acquaintances freedom of speech indisposition to brook real or imaginary insults which one witnesses among people of the west this equality this independence this rudeness so often described by the traveler as marking a new country were all accentuated by the character of the settlers themselves traces of the fierce unsociable eagle-eyed hard-drinking hunter remained the settlers who followed the hunter were with some exceptions soldiers of the revolutionary army farmers of the middling order and mechanics from the towns english scotch-irish germans poor in possessions and thrown upon the labor of their own hands for support sons and daughters from well-to-do eastern homes sometimes brought softer manners but the equality of life and the leveling force of labor in forest and field soon made them one in spirit with their struggling neighbors even the preachers and teachers who came when the cabins were raised in the clearings and rude churches and school-houses were built preached sermons and taught lessons that savored of the frontier as any one may know who reads peter cartwright's a muscular christian or eggleston's the hoosier schoolmaster the west and the east meet the east alarmed a people so independent as the westerners and so attached to local self-government gave the conservative east many a rude shock setting gentlemen in powdered wigs and knee breeches agog with the idea that terrible things might happen in the mississippi valley not without good grounds did washington fear that a touch of a feather would turn the western settlers away from the seaboard to the spaniards and seriously did he urge the east not to neglect them lest they be drawn into the arms of or be dependent upon foreigners taking advantage of the restless spirit in the southwest aaron burr having disgraced himself by killing alexander hamilton in a duel laid wild plans if not to bring about a secession in that region at least to build a state of some kind out of the spanish dominions adjoining louisiana frightened at such enterprises and fearing the dominance of the west the federalists with a few conspicuous exceptions opposed equality between the sections had their narrow views prevailed the west with its new democracy would have been held in perpetual tutelage to the seaboard or perhaps been driven into independence as the thirteen colonies had been not long before eastern friends of the west fortunately for the nation there were many eastern leaders particularly from the south who understood the west approved its spirit and sought to bring the two sections together by common bonds washington kept alive and keen the zeal for western advancement which he acquired in his youth as a surveyor he never grew tired of urging upon his eastern friends the importance of the lands beyond the mountains he pressed upon the governor of virginia a project for a wagon road connecting the seaboard with the ohio country and was active in a movement to improve the navigation of the potomac he advocated strengthening the ties of commerce smooth the roads he said and make easy the way for them and then see what an influx of articles will be poured upon us how amazingly our exports will be increased by them and how amply we shall be compensated for any trouble and expense we may encounter to effect it jefferson too was interested in every phase of western development the survey of lands the exploration of the waterways the opening of trade and even the discovery of the bones of prehistoric animals robert fulton the inventor of the steamboat was another man of vision who for many years pressed upon his countrymen the necessity of uniting east and west by a canal which would cement the union raise the value of the public lands and extend the principles of confederate and republican government the difficulties of early transportation means of communication played an important part in the strategy of all those who sought to bring together the seaboard and the frontier the produce of the west wheat corn bacon hemp cattle and tobacco was bulky and the cost of overland transportation was prohibitive in the eastern market a cow and her calf were given for a bushel of salt while a suit of store clothes cost as much as a farm in such circumstances the inhabitants of the mississippi valley were forced to ship their produce over a long route by way of new orleans and to pay high freight rates for everything that was brought across the mountains scows of from five to fifty tons were built at the towns along the rivers and piloted down the stream to the crescent city in a few cases small ocean-going vessels were built to transport goods to the west indies or to the eastern coast towns salt iron guns powder and the absolute essentials which the pioneers had to buy mainly in eastern markets were carried over narrow wagon trails that were almost impassable in the rainy season the national road to far-sighted men like albert gallatin the father of internal improvements the solution of this problem was the construction of roads and canals early in jefferson's administration congress dedicated a part of the proceeds from the sale of lands to building highways from the headwaters of the navigable waters emptying into the atlantic to the ohio river and beyond into the northwest territory in eighteen o six after many misgivings it authorized a great national highway binding the east and the west the cumberland road as it was called began in northwestern maryland wound through southern pennsylvania crossed the narrow neck of virginia at wheeling and then shot almost straight across ohio indiana and illinois into missouri by eighteen seventeen stage coaches were running between washington and wheeling by eighteen thirty three contractors had carried their work to columbus ohio and by eighteen fifty two to vandalia illinois over this ballasted road mail and passenger coaches could go at high speed and heavy freight wagons proceed in safety at a steady pace CANALS AND STEAMBOATS A second epoch in the economic union of the East and West was reached with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, offering an all-water route from New York City to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley.

Pennsylvania, alarmed by the advantages conferred on New York by this enterprise, began her system of canals and portages from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, completing the last link in 1834. in the south the chesapeake and ohio company chartered in eighteen twenty five was busy with a project to connect georgetown and cumberland when railways broke in upon the undertaking before it was half finished about the same time ohio built a canal across the state affording water communication between lake erie and the ohio river through a rich wheat belt passengers could now travel by canal boat into the west with comparative ease and comfort if not at a rapid speed and the bulkiest of freight could be easily handled moreover the rate charged for carrying goods was cut by the erie canal from thirty two dollars a ton per hundred miles to one dollar new orleans was destined to lose her primacy in the mississippi valley The diversion of traffic to eastern markets was also stimulated by steamboats, which appeared on the Ohio about 1810, three years after Fulton had made his famous trip on the Hudson.

It took twenty men to sail and row a five-ton scow up the river at a speed of from ten to twenty miles a day.

Brown, The Lower South in American History B.

A. Hinsdale, The Old Northwest, 2 volumes A.

B. Hulbert, Great American Canals and the Cumberland Road T. Roosevelt, Thomas H. Benton P. J.

Treat, The National Land System, 1785-1820 F. J. Turner, Rise of the New West, American Nation Series.

Read by Ted Linhart.

Letter three: Wheeling and the Cumberland Road.

Dear N, The promises of friendship, like those of love, are often carelessly made and lightly broken.

We are ready to concede anything to the entreaty of one we love without reflecting how many little contingencies may interfere with the engagement.

The people of the state of New York, with a liberality and promptitude which does them infinite honor, projected at the instigation of the discerning Clinton their grand canal from the Hudson to the lakes, expecting through this channel to become possessed of a large portion of the western trade.

That work is nearly finished, and while it cannot fail to prove a rich and lasting source of prosperity to New York, it will immortalize the name of that illustrious patriot who has devoted for years the whole energy of his fertile genius to its accomplishment.

The western representation in Congress, on the other hand, headed by Mr. Clay, devised the national turnpike, or, as it is commonly called, the Cumberland Road.

This project was proposed in such a form as to meet the approbation of the executive, who, pleased with the idea of strengthening the bonds of the federal union by facilitating the intercourse between its two grand divisions, easily came into the plan of establishing a great permanent route which should lead from the metropolis through the western states.

And by the 1800s, it was a boom town.

The National Road, as they call it, runs right through it.

The B&O Railroad, which I opined a long time ago about being my first model railroad on a ton of episodes of our show.

And the C&O Canal, both dead end there.

And as they dreamed, steps were taken to bring that dream to reality.

The United States government gave a land grant for the road, and a stupendous undertaking it was for the day, tracks 705 miles long, twice the distance of the Erie Canal, its cost twice that of the National Road, a railroad to be built not with bulldozers, cranes, and pneumatic hammers, but with brawn, sweat, and stamina, with horses, oxen, and men.

[cheerful music]

Wanted: 3,000 track laborers.

way doing surveying.

And of course, he wasn't president at the time, but all of the battles and traveling on the national road.

He was an ambitious young man.

He was.

By 1780, wheat had become the main crop.

The Ellicotts were not just building mills, they were building connections.

They helped Bill pay for roads, including a major portion of the National Road, at least the eastern extension of it down through Frederick County and what is today Howard County.

By 1805, those roads connected and the mills more effectively.

The journey from Virginia to Ohio is quite clear in my memory, though it was just at the close of my sixth year.

At that day, the roads over the Alleghenies were in a very rough condition, though the National or Cumberland Road was partly made, and in the spring of 1813 there were considerable stretches of it used by the wagoneers.

For emigrants and the transportation of freight, there was no mode of conveyance but the large road wagons, as they were called, usually drawn by five or six horses and carrying sixty or seventy hundredweight.

There were several routes by which these wagons approached the mountains, but after passing Cumberland, they followed the one road known as Braddock's Trail, which struck the Monongahela River at Brownsville or Redstone Fort, passing down the Laurel Hill near Uniontown, then called Beasantown.