of their vanity. The Cumberland Road was built by the people and for the people, and served well its high purpose. It became a highway for the products of the factories, the fisheries and the commerce of the eastern states. It made possible that interchange of the courtesies of social life necessary in a republic of united states. It was one of the great strands which bound the nation together in early days when there was much to excite animosity and provoke disunion. It became the pride of New England as well as of the West which it more immediately benefited; "The state of which I am a citizen," said Edward Everett at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1829, "has already paid between one and two thousand dollars toward the construction and repair of that road; and I doubt not she is prepared to contribute her proportion toward its extension to the place of its destination."[1]
Hundreds of ancient but unpretentious monuments of the Cumberland Road—the hoary milestones which line it—stand to perpetuate its name in future days. But
- ↑ Everett's Speeches and Orations, vol. i, p. 202.
