The families of those brave and patriotic citizens who have fallen in
this severe conflict will doubtless engage the favorable attention of
Congress.
JAMES MADISON.
WASHINGTON, _December 23, 1811_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I communicate to Congress copies of an act of the legislature of New
York relating to a canal from the Great Lakes to Hudson River. In making
the communication I consult the respect due to that State, in whose
behalf the commissioners appointed by the act have placed it in my hands
for the purpose.
The utility of canal navigation is universally admitted. It is no less
certain that scarcely any country offers more extensive opportunities
for that branch of improvements than the United States, and none,
perhaps, inducements equally persuasive to make the most of them. The
particular undertaking contemplated by the State of New York, which
marks an honorable spirit of enterprise and comprises objects of
national as well as more limited importance, will recall the attention
of Congress to the signal advantages to be derived to the United States
from a general system of internal communication and conveyance, and
suggest to their consideration whatever steps may be proper on their
part toward its introduction and accomplishment. As some of those
advantages have an intimate connection with the arrangements and
exertions for the general security, it is at a period calling for those
that the merits of such a system will be seen in the strongest lights.
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