resolutions[1] are practically embodied in the act incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.[2]
The two hundred delegates concluded their convocation by a banquet at Brown’s Hotel, Washington, on Saturday evening. Certain of the “spontaneous sentiments” were: By the Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, “the first right and the first duty of nations—self-dependence and self-improvement;” by the Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, “Canal navigation between the Atlantic and the western waters, essentially connected with the commerce, the defence, and the union of the states—may it receive the patronage and support of the nation;” by C. F. Mercer, soon to be the first president of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, “the eastern and western country—whom the Author of Nature has joined together, may no man put asunder;” by Mr. James Schriver, pioneer surveyor on the upper Potomac, “The Chesapeake and Ohio; they have ‘passed meeting’[3]—
