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Brantly's annotated Bland's Reports, Chancery Court 1809-1832
Volume 198, Volume 2, Page 154   View pdf image (33K)
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154 BINNEY'S CASE.—2 BLAND.

The new line of navigation would then, indeed, form a full and
complete connexion "between the eastern and western waters;"
which could be so effected in no other way. The naming of the
steamboat clearly shews, that it was the intention of the legisla-
tors, by this law, to provide a mode of transportation from the one
to the other, of those two classes of vessels, which were then so
profitably navigating the great rivers of our country. They in-
tended, that the canal boat should be enabled to pass * over
165 the whole space, from the ship of the east to the steamboat
of the west. It is not said, that the western'termination shall be
at the highest point to which a steamboat may go, but, "to the
highest steamboat navigation;" that is, to the highest point at
which such vessels usually go, and where they make their port.
And so, as to the eastern termination, the canal boat is to meet
a ship; bat that kind of vessel is hardly ever found at the highest
point of tide, to which she may go, but at the highest port. And
therefore the canal must necessarily be extended down to the port;
since the ship can meet and have intercourse with the canal boat
no where else. j

It is universally understood, that all canals, which have for their
chief object the exportation of ponderous and cheap commodities,
in co-operation with marine navigation, must be extended into the
very port itself. But, in this instance, more is expected: and
therefore, there is, if possible, an increased necessity for extending
this canal into the very port. The greatest and most important
political results, it is declared, are expected to How from connect
ing, in this way, the navigation of the east with that of the west;
and hence, it must have been intended, that the connexion should
be made in the most complete and perfect form; that there should,
if possible, be not the least break or interruption in any part of
the whole line from the ship of the east to the steamboat of the
west. Five miles of land transportation would cripple the inter-
course most prodigiously; thirty miles of land portage would de-
stroy the line of connexion totally.

Taken in this point of view, this law, by calling for a beginning
of this canal "from the tide water of the liiver Potomac, in the
District of Columbia," must be construed to have a reference to
one, or to all of the three ports on that tide, at which the marine nav-
igation ends. A different construction would confessedly allow of
a termination, that might be greatly injurious, or even absurd; one
which might mar the whole project, by stopping the great mass
of ponderous canal borne commodities some miles short of their des-
tination, there to be taken up and moved on again in another
form. But it is manifest, from the nature of the subject provided
for by this law, that the chief port of the District of Columbia
must have been contemplated as the most suitable eastern termi-
nation of this canal. Whence this Court is perfectly satisfied, that

 

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Brantly's annotated Bland's Reports, Chancery Court 1809-1832
Volume 198, Volume 2, Page 154   View pdf image (33K)
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