REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, ON THE SUBJECT OF PUBLIC ROADS AND CANALS; MADE IN PURSUANCE OF A RESOLUTION OF SENATE, OF MARCH 2, 1807. APRIL 12, 1808. PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE SENATE.
Washington: R.C. Weightman, 1808. 123, [1 blank] pp. Disbound, lightly foxed. Good+.
A polymath, visionary, and dedicated public servant, Gallatin applied his talents to a variety of American problems in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
"The construction of roads dates from [this] report ... This report presented a national plan of roads and canals as part of an internal improvement movement in which the federal government was to play a leading role. Despite Gallatin and early advocates of internal improvements, the federal government was not to be a partner in road building until the twentieth century. Thus, his report remains only an island in a flood tide of internal improvements that surfaced in the nineteenth century under the aegis of state and local governments joining with private enterprise, to build turnpike roads, canals, and railroads" [Review of Seely, Building the American Highway System, in 10 The Public Historian 103-105 [#3, Summer 1988].
"Contains communications on the subject of canals by B.H. Latrobe and Robert Fulton" [Rink].
FIRST EDITION. Howes G27. AI 16589 [7]. Rink 4009. Not in Eberstadt or Decker. Item #38345
Price: $750.00