direction, through Warren to the Ohio State line, to be continued through Pennsylvania to the Erie road at or near Olean, constituting a new line of communication between the railroads of Ohio and those of the East.

INDIANA.

Population in 1830, 343,031; in 1840, 685,866; in 1850, 988,416. Area in square miles, 33,809; inhabitants to square mile, 29.23.

The State of Indiana, in emulation of the example of her sister States, commenced, in 1836, the construction of an elaborate system of internal improvement, of which only a comparatively small portion has been accomplished. It consisted partly of canals, and partly of railroads. The canals proposed were the Wabash and Erie, the Central, the White Water, the Terre Haute and Eel River, and a canal from Fort Wayne to Michigan City. The railroads proposed to be constructed by the State, were the Madison and Indianapolis, and the Lafayette and Michigan.

The Wabash and Erie canal is the most important of the works of public improvement undertaken in the State. It commences at the Ohio State line, and extends to Evansville, on the Ohio river, a distance of three hundred and seventy-nine miles, and four hundred and sixtyseven miles from Toledo, on Lake Erie. When completed, it will form one of the longest lines of canal in the world. From Toledo to Fort Wayne it has a depth of four feet, and a width of sixty. Below this point, it is only three feet deep and forty-five wide. Its locks admit boats of a capacity of about sixty tons. It is to be opened for traffic through its whole length in the ensuing spring.

This work was completed by the State as far as Lafayette, a distance of two hundred and thirty miles from Toledo, and two hundred and forty-nine from the Ohio. When the State became, from the embarrassment of its affairs, unequal to its farther construction, a condi tional agreement was made with the bondholders of the State for its completion; the latter reserving the right to resume the work, upon the payment of the sum which the bondholders had agreed to receive in addition to the cost of completing it. It is believed that the canal will again pass into the hands of the State, by the ultimate payment of the whole of her debt. Although the construction of the canal was one of the causes of the financial embarrassments of the State, the work has proved one of the efficient means by which she has recovered from them and reached the high position she now holds as a leading State in the confederacy. As far as excellence of soil is concerned, no State possesses superior resources. The canal opened an outlet for her products, and gave her the use of means, which up to its opening lay dormant, from the difficulty and cost of reaching a market. The rapid increase in the exports of Indian corn will illustrate the value of improvements which facilitate transportation. The exports of this article from the Wabash valley, from insignificance, rose to millions of bushels in a very few years after the opening of the canal; and Toledo, its terminus on Lake Erie, is now the chief port of export for this article.

Railroads in Indiana.

The failure of the State to carry out her proposed system of public improvements, and the financial troubles in which she became involved, put an end for a time to all enterprises of the kind, whether of a public or private character. Some years were required to make good the losses resulting from the great expansion of 1836-'37, and to allow the public mind to recover from the discouraging influence of the reverses sustained. As in Ohio, lapse of time brought greater means, a more enlarged capacity to superintend and execute works of magnitude, better defined objects, and a traffic necessary for the support of extensive lines of improvement. The system proposed by the State was, in fact, in advance of the conditions required to sustain it. It anticipated a state of things which did not exist. In commencing the new movement, which has resulted so successfully, her people have followed and not anticipated their wants. They have taken up only such enterprises as were sanctioned by the clearest evidence of their necessity, and which could command sufficient support to insure success. The result has been uniformly favorable; and the State of Indiana, which but two or three years since had hardly a mile of railroad within her limits, now takes rank with our leading railroad States, and is soon to be third or fourth in the extent of her works. Her credit and means have advanced with equal pace, and, though one of the new States, she already occupies a prominent position in the confederacy.

There is no State in the Union that presents so symmetrical a system of railroads as Indiana. Nearly all her great lines radiate from the geographical centre and capital of the State. By this means they are all brought into intimate business relations with one another, an arrangement which must promote to a great degree the advantages of each. Indianapolis is soon to be the point of intersection of eight important roads, viz: the Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis, Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis, Central, Bellefontaine, Peru, Lafayette, Terre Haute, and the New Albany and Salem roads. All these roads will be carried, in their respective directions, to the boundary lines of the State. Their focus is in the great lines of railroad running from the eastern States to the Mississippi river, and from the Ohio to the great lakes. It is impossible to conceive a system better devised for the promotion of the interests of the people of the State, or of the railroad companies.

All of these great lines, while they have their appropriate and ample belts of fertile, productive and well-settled territory for local traffic, occupy important routes for through-business and travel. The Jeffersonville opens a communication between the central portions of the State with Louisville, the second city of the Ohio valley; the Madison and Indianapolis forms a similar connexion with Madison, an important town, favorably situated on the Ohio river for commanding the trade of the interior; the Lawrenceburg forms the connecting line between Indianapolis and Cincinnati; the Central is the direct extension, westward, of the leading lines running through central Ohio; the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine opens the outlet to the great lakes

and the lines of road traversing northern Ohio; the Peru connects the capital and central portions of the State with the Wabash canal, which is now the great commercial avenue for the State; the Lafayette connects the most important town in the northwestern part of the State with the central portions, and will soon constitute a link of the great line extending to Chicago; the Terre Haute is the connecting line between the railroad system of the State and St. Louis, and the railroads of Illinois; the New Albany and Salem will connect the cities of Louisville and New Albany, and the lower portions of the State, with the interior, by a line lying to the west of the Jeffersonville road, and will also constitute an unbroken line of some two hundred and eighty-five miles between Lake Michigan and the Ohio river.

With the exception of the New Albany and Salem, all the above roads having the same general direction may be said to be complements of each other. The Central and the Terre Haute roads constitute, in a business and commercial point of view, one line; so with the Lawrenceburg and Lafayette, and the Jeffersonville and Peru. In this manner, a system of railroads will be found adapted to promote the highest good of all the members to it, and to develop to the utmost the wealth and resources of the State, and at the same time fitted to be come a portion of a still wider system embracing the whole country.

The system we have described occupies an area in the central portions of the State about one hundred and fifty miles square. In length of line and relative importance there is great uniformity in the various roads that compose it. They all occupy favorable routes; are all calculated to benefit each other; and will be rivals for the same trade in a slight degree only. The northern and southern portions of the State will also be well supplied with railroad accommodations. In the southern portion, the most important road in progress is the Ohio and Mississippi, which traverses it from east to west. This work has already been sufficiently noticed under "the railroads of Ohio." The southwestern corner of the State is traversed by the Evansville and Illinois road, which is already completed to Princeton, and is in progress to Terre Haute. When this last point is reached, a connexion will be formed with the Central system, which will be brought into communication with Evansville, the most important and flourishing town upon the lower Ohio, and also with a railroad now in progress leading from Henderson, upon the opposite bank of the river, in Kentucky, to Nashville, Tennessee, in order to connect with the roads terminating in that city. The New Albany and Salem road is an important work for southern Indiana. At or near Orleans it will form a connexion with the Ohio and Mississippi railroad, and will thus constitute a convenient and direct route between the cities of New Albany, Louisville, and St. Louis. This road will also supply railroad accommodations to an extensive and important, but comparatively isolated portion of western Indiana. In the northern part of the State, it will perform a still more important office in opening, and that shortly, a communication between the central and northern portions of Indiana and the city of Chicago. The line of this road extends from New Albany to Michigan City, (with a branch to Indianapolis) and thence to Chicago, making its entire length about three hundred and fifteen miles. A part of this line will be composed

of the Crawfordsville and Wabash road, which has been merged in the former. Three distinct portions of it are in operation, viz: from New Albany to Orleans; from Crawfordsville to Lafayette; and from Michigan City to Chicago. The unfinished portion is well advanced, and much of it will be finished before 1853, when the whole will be completed.

An important work in the northern part of the State is the Indiana Northern road, and which will be noticed with the Michigan Southern road, of which it forms a part. These two roads constitute a leading line, as they unite the most southerly portions of Lakes Erie and Michigan, two important points in the geography and commerce of the country. The great lakes occupy a basin extending 500 miles from north to south, and oppose an insuperable barrier to the direct extension westward of the lines from the northern States. All these are deflected southwardly, to avoid Lake Michigan. Such is the fact with a large number of roads in reference to Lake Erie; consequently, a line connecting the southern shores of these lakes cannot fail to be a work of the first importance, not only to the travel and commerce of the country, but to its business and revenues. The great favor with which this project is regarded by the public, is undoubtedly due in part to the above considerations. The Northern Indiana road traverses a portion of the State celebrated for its fertility, which will secure to it a large local, as well as through traffic.

Among the proposed roads, probably the most important is the Wabash Valley line, which is to extend from Toledo, Ohio, to the boundary line of Illinois. A glance at the accompanying map will convey a better idea of the value of such a work, and the intimate relation it will bear to the commerce and travel of the country, than any attempted description. It will be seen that Toledo is the most salient point on Lake Erie, for all the country lying to the west and southwest of it. It has already become a place of great commerce, by means of the Wabash canal, and must always be a leading point in the routes both of business and travel. A line of railroad connecting Toledo and St. Louis would coincide for a long distance with the course of the Wabash river. The valley of this river is celebrated for its fertility, and is filled with large and flourishing towns, which owe their existence and traffic to the canal, and are the depôts of trade for the surrounding country. In this manner an ample business has been already developed for the support of a first-class railroad.

Another important project is the projected road from Fort Wayne to Chicago. This is proposed as the legitimate extension of the Ohio and Indiana railroad, which has already been noticed under the roads of Ohio. These roads would constitute a direct line between the great city of the Northwest and the railroads of central Ohio. The importance of such an avenue must be apparent upon the slightest examination of the probable routes of travel and trade in the West. The great tide of emigration which is flowing thither from the middle States and Ohio is directed upon Chicago, which is the great point of its distribution over the unoccupied lands of the new States. This city must also become an important business and commercial point for all the western States. The above line is also regarded as the appropriate extension to Chicago

of the great Philadelphia and Baltimore lines, which will be extended to the eastern terminus of the former, in central Ohio.

An important road is in progress, commencing at Richmond, the western terminus of the Dayton and Western, and Hamilton and Eaton roads, and extending to the Wabash river, at Logansport, which it is intended ultimately to carry forward to Chicago. As a through-route, its object is to connect Cincinnati and Chicago. Locally, it may be regarded as a Cincinnati road, penetrating a very rich and productive section of the State. It is under contract from Richmond to the Wabash, by way of Newcastle. It will be seen that, for the country traversed, it will constitute a very direct and convenient outlet to its great market, Cincinnati; and it is so situated as to command, to a great extent, the traffic of the territory lying to the north of its line. The route proposed by this road, it is believed, will constitute the shortest route between Cincinnati and Chicago.

It is also proposed to construct a branch from the Jeffersonville road, commencing at or near Columbus, and extending as far north as Union, the eastern terminus of the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine road, and probably to Fort Wayne. This extension is favored by the city of Louisville, Kentucky, as affording means of connecting herself with the roads running east and west through Ohio, and of securing a portion of their trade and travel, which otherwise would be drawn to Ĉincinnati.

The branch to Fort Wayne would probably run through Muncie, on the Bellefontaine road, and in this manner a connexion would be formed between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis. The route for such a road has been surveyed and found favorable, and active measures are in progress to raise the necessary means for its construction.

The above are the leading projects in the State. There are several others of minor consequence, among which may be named the Shelbyville, Knightstown, and Rushville branches. There are others proposed, but not sufficiently advanced to call for particular notice.

MICHIGAN.

Population in 1830, (Territory,) 31,639; in 1840, 212,267; in 1850, 397,654. Area in square miles, 56,243; inhabitants to square mile, 7.07.

The State of Michigan, so early as 1836, while in her very infancy, matured and commenced an elaborate system of internal improvements, by means of railroads and canals. Of the latter none have been constructed: in fact, they were hardly commenced. Of the great lines of railroads, two, the most important, have been completed, with some deviation from the original plans.

1. The Michigan Central railroad commences at Detroit, and runs generally in a western direction, to Lake Michigan. It is then deflected southward and carried around the southern shore of Lake Michigan to Chicago, the whole length of line being 282 miles. It was completed to Lake Michigan, at New Buffalo, two or three years since, but was extended to Chicago within a few months only. This work is in every point of view most important, saving the necessity of