Report Of The Proceedings Of The Annual Convention Volume 48 PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 edition. Excerpt: ...involves a beginning; therefore it is both pleasant and instructive here in the city of Richmond to recall the fact that the Father of his Country was also the parent of waterway improvements. Even prior to the Revolution, he, as an engineer, saw the possibilities of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and after the broadening influence of the war, appreciated, as a statesman, the military necessity of a water route to maintain our hold of the Mississippi, Spain at that time controlling its mouth. ' It remained, however, for an Englishman to give the full significance and far reaching results following Washington's vision of continental expansion as outlined by him during a meeting of distinguished citizens in 1785, at Mt. Vernon. Time does not permit me to enlarge upon the theme, but all whom I see before me should read Oliver's "Alexander Hamilton," and the "Life of Washington," by Senator Lodge, of Massachusetts. ' Again in 1776, knowing that Lord Howe's fleet was about to sail discomfited from Boston, Washington sent Machin to the eight mile isthmus at Cape Cod, hoping that engineers might find a route for small vessels from Barnstable to Buzzards Bay; feeling sure that he could outsail the slow ships of the enemy if a means were found through inland waters to New York. A report was made that only three miles of low intervening sand separated the east and west flowing creeks. Washington never forgot how small was the barrier, and he and the two succeeding Presidents advocated a light draft canal across the Cape. Much, therefore, do we of our corporation, and you of your Association, owe to Virginia. Washington's early fathering of the military, political and economic value of water...