importance of any in this quarter of the country, and The water course which is already open between That in 1819 after the admission of the State of Illinois, John C. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, made a report to Congress on this same subject and recommended that the report of Major Long, heretofore mentioned, be carried out-not only as an aid to commerce, but also as being the most important from a military point of view. (See Volume 4, Public Documents, Second Session, 15th Congress.) After the admission of Illinois in the Union the Legislature of Illinois prepared a memorial addressed to Congress reciting the necessity of uniting the two bodies of water mentioned as forming an important addition to the great connecting links in the chain of the international navigation which will effectively secure the indissoluble union of the confederate members of this great and powerful republic. And the memorial continued, said: "By the completion of this great and valuable work the connection between the North and South, the East and the West would be strengthened by the ties of commercial intercourse and social neighborhood, and the union of the states might bid defiance to international commotion, sectional jealousy and foreign invasion. All the states of the union would then feel the most powerful motive to resist every attempt at dissolution." This plea, so eloquently put, backed by Governor Cook |
