harie. Prompted by these actual observations, I could not help taking a more contemplative and extensive view of the vast inland navigation of the United States. . . . Would to God we may have wisdom enough to improve them! I shall not rest contented until I have explored the western country, and traversed those lines (or a great part of them) which have given bounds to a new empire."
To William Irvine, Washington wrote in 1788: "The letter with which you favored me . . . . inclosing a sketch of the waters near the line which separates your State from that of New York, came duly to hand. . . . The extensive inland navigation with which this country abounds and the easy communications which many of the rivers afford with the amazing territory to the west of us, will certainly be productive of infinite advantage to the Atlantic States. . . . For my part, I wish sincerely that every door to that country may be set wide open, that the commercial intercourse may be rendered as free and as easy as possible. This, in my judgment, is the best, if not the only
